The Experiment
by ThatOneChick'98
Summary: Rose and Dimitri have been picked for a guardian research experiment. Now, they must handle the stress that most couples handle while staying objective. They find out that it becomes increasingly hard to keep their growing love a secret while they're parenting four children. Between kids, hospital visits, money issues, and time Rose and Dimitri have a lot to handle
1. Chapter 1

The Experiment Ch 1

I was bandaging Dimitris' hand when they came. Five Moroi all holding clipboards with a superior air around them.

"Dimitri Belikov? Rosemarie Hathaway?"

"Rose," I said, correcting him without meaning to, "What do you want?"

"Rose..." Dimitri warned, but I was already focused on his hand.

"I'm Kendrick Ivashkov. I'm the head of the psychology research department at the Court hospital," he paused like that was supposed to impress us, but all I noticed was that he was still standing over us as we sat on the mat. If he knew so much about psychology he should have known that standing over someone was not the best way to enter their confidence. "We are researching dhampir guarding partners, finding out what makes them work, how much stress the pair can handle together, things like that. When we asked around for partners that were the best fit for our tests, your names came up quite regularly."

"You could pick any pair of guardians and they would do the trick. Not just us. In fact, you seeking out a pair that would work best for the experiment could make it bias. It could become a confirmation bias experiment."

"You know about psychology."

"My best friend is depressed, of course I know."

"I see, well, I assure you this test will not turn out that way.

"The headmistress has already said she will support the experiment fully. She has already been briefed about what will happen. We will need you to come with us."

"I'm sorry," I said, finally looking at him, "I don't remember giving consent to being a part of the experiment."

"The headmistress has already given us the consent we need."

"She has no right!"

"She does. You are a minor placed under her control. Dimitri is an employee, that holds him to her service. Please, come with us."

I looked at Dimitri for help, but he was shaking his head, "If she gave consent we need to do it."

Before he finished, I was already getting up and heading towards Kirova's office, "You have got to be kidding me," I said, bursting through the door, "I don't want to do it."

"Doesn't matter, Rose. I fully support what the queen is doing. I'm sure she has her reasons."

"You don't even know her reasons!" I said, as I started to pace the floor.

"There are no laws about what a dhampir can't go through in an experiment. They could water board us, and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it! Do you understand that?"

"I promise you that there will be no water boarding in this experiment," Kendrick said coming in with Dimitri and the other Moroi.

"Oh no, you seem way to nice to do that. I can tell because you barged in unannounced and basically said, 'kay, you're doing this whether you like it or not'. You did however say that you were going to see how much stress we could handle which points to emotional abuse."

Everyone was silent. I had hit the nail on the head, "You have got to be kidding me."

"You two are one of the only pair of partners that would cover everything we want to accomplish. You're strong guardians, a novice and a guardian, a boy and a girl, a twenty four year old and seventeen year old. Not to mention the...new trauma you've been placed under."

"...Mason. You want to experiment on me using psychological torture when I've just seen one of my friends die a violent death?" no answer, "You all are sick."

"Rosemarie," Kirova said, "You and Dimitri will do the experiment."

"Why?!" I screamed.

"Because...I think it will be good for you both. It will put stress on your relationship and make it stronger."

I laughed, "If you make our relationship any stronger we'd be in bed together."

"Good."

I backed up a few feet, "That did not have the desired effect."

"The experiment," Kendrick said, "Would require you both to share a bed to see if you could take the stress of sharing a bedroom."

"Of course," Kirova said, "The law of the land still stands, and there would be no sexual encounters."

"Yes, of course."

"You are trying to torture us," I said, sitting down on the couch by Kirova's desk.

"Roza," Dimitri said, sitting by me, "There's no way to get out of this. We just have to do it."

"You'll be filmed around the clock for results. You'll share a house, a bed, and money. You'll pay Kirova for your rent, food, water, wifi, and lighting. You'll share responsibilities. Rose will still go to school. Dimitri will still work as a guardian. You may continue your mentoring relationship if you want."

"So not much will change except housing and money," I said to myself.

"Not exactly." Kendrick said, "There will be another change."

"Kids?!" Lissa said as we went through the cafeteria line.

"You heard me. A thirteen year old girl named Mary. A seven year old named Liz. A four year old named Alec and a two year old named Charlie."

"Four kids?! Dear Lord, Rose! Anything else?"

"The thirteen year old has a rare genetic disorder called CIPA, which stands for Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis."

"What the heck is that?"

"It means she can't feel pain. The seven year old has leukemia. The four year old was burnt in a fire that killed his parents and still suffers from it. The two year old has a pervasive developmental disorder."

"They're giving you these kids? Those kids need-"

"A family, Liss. They need a family and because of things they can not control they will never get one. These disorders or diseases or situations make them undesirable to any other couple, but the researchers want to put stress on Dimitri and I so they gave them to us."

Liss studied me for a second, then seemed to decide on something and went to sit down at our table where Christian was sitting.

"What? What are you thinking?" I said, watching Liss give Chris a peck on the cheek and start eating.

"Nothing, I just..."

"What?"

"I think you're going to love these kids."

"Lissa...it's just for two months. Then I'll never see them again."

"You'll see. I promise."

The next day, Lissa woke up early with me and Dimtri to get the kids and settle into the house.

While Dimitri and I were going to get used to a lot, they were going to have to go through more. They were coming from a small orphanage that taught them into a strange world. Sure, they were all dhampirs and training to be guardians, but in the end they were just kids and this was a lot of change in a short manner of time. I couldn't help but think that this experiment extended to them as well.

When we entered Kirova's office, they were all sitting on the couch. Two of them turned around, the seven year old and the four year old. Liz rushed towards us with enthusiasm, her hair (more likely her wig) flying behind her. She had pale, sickly skin and bright blue eyes. Her chubby face was framed by dark curls. She looked like an angel.

Shit, Lissa was right. I would love her.

"Miss Kirdoova says you are my new mommy! Hi, Mommy!"

"She's not your mother, Liz." Mary said, not looking at me. All I could see of her was her long brown hair. So this was the girl who didn't feel pain?

Alec had made his way off the couch and slowly towards us. From what I could see, nothing was really burnt except for his neck which was a slight pink in the back reaching into his shirt. His hair around there had been shaved off so it wouldn't aggravate it.

He smiled at me and waved as Liz moved onto Dimitri, jumping up into his arms. I made my way towards him and the couch and he grabbed my hand as I reached him.

"This is Charlie," he said, looking over the back of the couch at the toddler sticking his tongue out dumbly, "And that's Mary."

"Hi, Mary. I'm Rose."

"Don't expect me to call you 'Mom'."

"I don't expect you to do anything except what you have to."

"If that's really what you mean than we should have no problems."

Kirova handed me a file for each child, "Follow me."

Dimitri, Lissa, the kids, and I moved out of the office and to a small house that was built between the elementary school and high school. Liz clung to Dimitri's back trying to get him to talk but failing. I stayed back with Alec, who was having trouble walking.

Mary seemed to have pity on both Alec and I and said, "Bend down and let him get on your back, just don't hold onto him and he'll be fine. I did as she suggested and we were able to move a lot faster.

Entering the small two floor house, Kirova pointed to a stack of files, "Those hold the houses info and cost for everything. Each child is able to get their own room. The master bedroom is the last door at the end of the hallway. Two and a half baths and a living room with a kitchen. You all should be set. Your stuff has already been moved in. Call me if you have any questions."

Lissa stayed all day, helping Dimitri and I get accomodated to the kids and the house. She stayed until it was bedtime for the kids and left us to take care of getting them ready.

With Charlie on my hip, I entered Mary's room, "Bedtime. Get ready for bed."

She looked at me, "Is there any way I can turn that off?" she asked, nodding towards the corner of the room. I stepped further into the room to look and found a camera in the upper left corner of her room.

"I don't think so."

"So I'll be videotaped whenever I'm changing."

"I'm afraid so."

"...Super." she said, then lifted up her shirt, "I need you to chek my back for any bruises that look dangerous besides the ordinary bruises from training."

There were bruises, but none of them looked any different from the ones I had on my back, "Looks good."

"Any scratches?"

"No."

She lowered her shirt and came towards me, "Do I feel like I'm running a fever?"

I put the back of my hand on her forehead, "No. You're fine."

"Thanks. Looks like you're not totally worthless."

"Um, thanks?"

"You need to go change Alec's bandages for him before he goes to sleep. You have to have him lay on his stomach with the bandages off for five mintes to let the burns breathe, then you can bandage them back up."

"Okay, thank you."

I went to Alec's room and he smiled at me, "Hey sweetheart. We need to redo your bandages, okay?"

He nodded and I put Charlie down on the ground t help him take off his shirt. He had bandages all along his back to his thighs, no wonder he couldn't walk. I had undid the bandagesand had him lay on his stomach for a while.

"It hurts," he said.

"I'm sorry, just a few more minutes," I said, picking up Charlie from his spot on the ground. Part of his developmental disorder meant he couldn't even crawl, which was good I guess, it kept him from doing something he wasn't supposed to.

When the time was up, I redid the bandages and tucked him in.

"Night, Mommy," he said, grinning from ear to ear.

I was so startled by the name it took me a moment to realize he meant me, "Night, baby."

I was about to turn off the lights when he yelled, "No! Lights on! Then the monsters can't come."

So I left them on and walked to Charlie's room, changing him into pajamas and laying him in bed since he was already asleep.

Closing the door with a baby monitor in hand I ran straight into Dimitri, "Sorry."

He smiled at me, "Liz won't go to bed before she sees you."

"Okay, I'll go see her now."

"Then we need to go downstairs and talk about money."

"Sounds like fun."

Entering Liz's room, I saw that I was right, her wig was now sitting on a head manicin on her bedside table, "Mommy, I need a hug before I go to sleep."

I smiled and gave her one, "Night, Angel."

"Night, Mommy!" she said as I turned off the lights.

I was so not ready to be a mother.

I made my way downstairs, trying to get that word out of my head, but failing. "What's going on?" I asked Dimitri, sitting down beside him.

"I think you're right about them torturing us. There's no way we can pay for everything. Medical bills, food, rent, and lighting take up our whole income. I'll have to start working sixteen hours a day to pay for everything."

"What?! No! That's ridiculous."

"That's what we need to do. Otherwise we can't pay for everything."

"You do realize that there are only twenty-four hours in a day, right? You work for sixteen hours then you have to come home and try to get enough sleep to do it again the next day. Let me take some of those hours."

"No," he said, sternly, "You have school. Despite what most people think, that takes up a lot of time. I'm also going to need you to take care of the kids, even if I don't take the hours I won't be here when they get home from school. You'll need to take most of the weight."

I sat there for a second, not really knowing what to say. Dimitri looked at me with frustration and pity, covering his head with his hands, "You shouldn't have to deal with this. You're seventeen."

"Doesn't matter," I said, "I'm dealing with it now. I want to help you. What's the point of having us if the kids never see one of us?"

"What's the point in having us when neither of us are around to take care of them?"

"Okay, so I'll take two hours off you back."

"Rose..."

"What?! It's two hours!"

"That's two hours away from school or the kids or Lissa or training or having a life."

"You won't have a life if you do this."

"You're extroverted. You love people. I'd don't. I'm asking you to take care of people. It's what you do best. Even with the illnesses, you know more than I do about them. You'll know what to do with them.

"Liz took off her wig and I had no idea what to do with her. You came in and checked Mary without a second thought. Charlie was attached to your hip all day and he was fine. I try to pick him up and he cries. You're the best one to do this and I'm not going to take that away from them.

"Me taking sixteen hours instead of twelve will allow us to handle the cost of everything as long as we don't need anything else."

"What if one of the kids need to go to the infirmary?" I asked, interrupting his speech.

Dimitri was silent for a while, "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."

"Great."

We were silent for a while, then I looked at him, "doctors don't usually do appointments during the weekend, I need you to take one day off of work after school finishes so we can take them to appointments together. I won't do that alone."

"Deal."

"Will you have to work weekends?"

"Yes. To pay for the emergency trips I guess I'll have to make those days sixteen hours too."

"Could we live off of twelve hours?"

"...Yes, unless they need something else."

"Take that time off. They need to know you're there for them."

"...Until we need the money, we can do that."

"If they have anything big, recitals, plays, or whatever they do, I want you there. Even if you're guarding, they need to know that you saw."

"I'll ask Kirova when something like that comes up."

"Have we covered everything?"

"I think so."

"Bedtime for the parents," I said, rushing towards the bedroom.

Dimitri laughed from behind me at my excitement to go to bed.

Maybe we would be okay.


	2. Chapter 2

The Experiment Ch 2

I woke up to the cold. I no longer had any blankets. Looking over at Dimitri, I saw that he had made himself a little cocoon of our covers. I almost laughed at him. All I could see was his face peeking out of the bundle.

He looked to peaceful for me to wake up so I got out of bed and grabbed a blanket from the chair in the room. Pulling it behind me, I climbed back in bed and snuggled up next to Dmitri. As pay back, or what I called pay back, I put my head on half his pillow.

I woke up a second time to Charlie crying through the monitor.

"Dimitri," I said, shaking his arm, and feeling him stir, "Before the sun rises he's your son."

"You being able to quote Lion King shows that you are more than capable of helping him yourself."

I slapped his arm, "You're not going to see him for a while. Go take care of him."

Dimitri untangled himself from the covers and made his way to Charlie's room. Through the monitor, I could hear him soothing Charlie. The sounds took a while to soothe the baby, but almost no time to soothe me.

The third and fourth time I woke up was to people entering the room. Dimitri came back from Charlie's room, and, not an hour later, I felt my empty side of the bed bend down and little hands shook me.

"Alec?" I asked, moving over to my other side so that I could look at the boy, "What's wrong?"

"Fire everywhere," he said, burrowing his face into my chest, and falling almost immediately to sleep.

"Just for tonight," I said to myself, "Then you'll go back to your room."

Surprisingly, I slept through the rest of the night. I was hoping to be able to sleep in the following Monday, but I knew the kids probably wouldn't let me. Imagine my surprise when Lissa dropped onto the bed beside me, shrieking at me to wake up.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

"Nope, it's Sunday, you've already slept through church, the least you could do is get up to be with your family."

"Lissa!"

"Up. Dimitri's already left to talk to Kirova."

"Talk to her about what?"

"His schedule. He said he talked to you about it."

"Right. That."

"Is he asking for less work time?"

"Uhh...something like that."

"What is he doing then?"

"Getting more hours."

"MORE?!"

"Yes," I said, getting up and going downstairs.

"Why would he be getting more hours?!"

"Shh, Lissa. Don't let the kids hear you," she shot me an annoyed look, "Dimitri and I can't pay for everything the kids need on the income we have. He won't let me work so the only thing left is for him to take more hours."

"You all could have asked me for money!"

I stared at her for a minute, telling her what she already knew, "If we did that we would never be able to live with ourselves."

We spent the day doing homework, taking care of the kids, hanging out, and getting ready for our first school day with the kids.

"That wasn't so bad," I said, laying in bed, watching Dimitri come in and change out of his guardian uniform, he put on a tshirt over his boxers before joining me under the covers.

"That's good, maybe this will be easier than we thought," I twisted my body so we were facing towards eachother, still under the blankets, "Are you going to steal my pillow again tonight?" he asked through the foot of space between us.

"ONly if you take my half of the covers."

"I saw what you did for Alec."

"I thought you were asleep."

"I know you did. That's possibly why it's so incredible. You're a natural mother," I shrugged as he continued, "I hope you get to be a mother for real one day."

I knew what he meant, of course. Sure, he wanted to be with me, but he didn't want me to give up what I do 'naturally'. He would give up any chance of being with me to make me happy.

"I refuse to get knocked up by some random Moroi."

He laughed a little, "I know. But you have Adrian."

"You hate Adrian."

"If he makes you happy...I could probably deal with him."

I looked at him for a second, then turned my head away from him, "Thanks for the consideration."

He smiled softly at me and played along with my joke, "You're welcome. I've been told I'm very considerate."

I laughed, laying down on my back, "What are we doing? We are trying to fit our old lives into this new one, but that's not possible. We have kids to take care of, and, as well as they're doing now, I don't think things are going to stay this way for long."

"You're right. Things are most likely going to go haywire, but that doesn't mean you can put your life on hold for two months.

"I can change my schedule to accommodate them, but if they need you during school what are you going to do?"

"Run out of the room, I guess."

He smiled softly at me, "Even though I know it won't make a difference, can we save running out of class for emergencies?"

"Yes, sir," I said, saluting him.

He leaned over me, "I'm serious. The experiment is not your priority, your education is. Don't be running out of class for kids that aren't yours."

We stared at each other for a while, then I turned away from him, "They deserve a family."

"They do, but not us. This is temporary. We can't give them a permanent family. In two months, the kids will go away. Maybe occasionally they'll think of us, but that's it. Charlie won't even remember us."

When I didn't say anything back he whispered, "It needed to be said."

"I know."

"Take care of yourself before you take care of them. They aren't Moroi."

They come first. The kids don't. Just the Moroi. Something seemed wrong about putting the kids' lives lower than someone else's because they are of a different race.

Lissa had said I would love these kids, and, even now, I knew she was right. Would I be able to put her life over those kids'? And, if I was, would it be the right thing to do?


	3. Chapter 3

"Roza!" Dimitri said, jumping onto the bed like a little kid, "I need to go to work. You need to get the kids up."

"You do realize we're falling into sexist roles, right? Me with the kids, you with the work, it's totally sexist," I said, shoving my head into his pillow.

"You're right, but that's all we have so far. Maybe on odd days you can go to work and I can go to school."

"All right, fine," I said, getting up and going to take a shower, "But they're calling you 'mom' and me 'dad' so they know we aren't sexist."

He chuckled at me, before grabbing his duster and leaving, "I'll see you tonight. Don't kill the kids."

"I'm not making any promises!" I called after him.

I showered and dressed before going downstairs. The kids were all dressed and eating their breakfast when I entered, the TV on Disney Channel blaring through the room.

"Alright, kiddos. First day of school." This got many different reactions. Mary turned green from nervousness, Liz turned red from excitement, and Alec remained completely passive. Charlie, who had no idea what I was saying, fed off of the mixed emotions in the room and made a sound of disgust.

"What are they going to do with us?"

"Well, that's what I wanted to see. I could send you on your way and you all could go and get everything settled yourselves or I could walk your classrooms. Which would you all prefer?"

"Classrooms? As in, more than one classroom?"

I had forgotten that they were all educated in the same classroom where they came from. Not only the students and teachers would be different for them, it would be the whole institution.

"I'll walk you all today."

Mary shifted uneasily.

"It's always nerve wrecking the first day. That's okay," I said looking at them all individually, "Just smile and work through the nerves. You'll do fine."

I walked them to the school with Charlie in my arms and Alec on my back. I didn't want Alec to get tired so quickly on the first day of school and Mary was too nervous to hold him or the baby.

We dropped Liz and Alec off, who were too excited about meeting people to see their baffled stares as new kids entered the room in the middle of the year.

I walked Mary to her side of the building with Charlie on my hip, "You nervous?"

"Yeah, it's already two weeks into the second semester. Everyone already has all their friends."

"Then you'll be the friend no one expected to have, but love anyway."

"Yeah, sure."

"They don't have to like you yet. You've got all the time to make them do that. You just have to get through the day."

Mary looked at me and nodded before looking down at her feet.

I felt hopeless, I didn't know what to say to make her feel better. I wasn't Dimitri, who could open his mouth and say one thing and not have to say anything else. I rattled my head to figure something out, but came up with nothing except, "You'll do fine."

"Thanks, mom," she said stressing my fake title, a title I didn't deserve.

I directed her into the building towards the middle school principal, who was waiting with her school schedule, "Okay, there you go. You'll get your books today, and - where's your backpack?"

Mary and I stopped and stared at each other for a second. I knew we were forgetting something.

I shifted Charlie from one arm to the other and handed her my book bag. She took my books out and handed them to me, "It's right here."

The principal gave us an uneasy grin, "Okay. Works for me."

We followed her down the hallway and Mary leaned towards me, "We just got judged hard."

"I noticed that. We'll get you a backpack tonight. I guess we should have thought of that before. I'll take care of it."

She nodded as the principal opened a door to the classroom, "In you go."

Mary looked back at me and I smiled and nodded at her, trying to silently encourage her in.

I stood at the door as the principal took Mary into the room, "Kids, this is Mary Belikov. I want you to make her as comfortable as you can. Mary," she said turning towards her, "Why don't you take a spot next to Jill. Jill make her feel welcome."

I left as Mary sat down next to a brown haired girl who was already talking excitedly to her and pointing at me. I silently hoped that being associated with me didn't ruin her reputation before she had a chance to make her own.

The principal followed me bumping into camera man who was assigned to follow me during the experiment while I was out of the house.

"So, you're really doing this? Taking care of four kids?"

"I don't have a choice."

"Everyone has a choice, they just might not get to have that choice listened to and granted. It surprises me that you haven't chosen to fight this."

"Why would I? Those kids now have a family. A screwed up one, but still a family."

"You'd risk your future for theirs?"

"I'm literally training to risk my future to save someone else's. That's what guardians do."

"They aren't Moroi."

"Are you saying that just because those kids aren't Moroi means they shouldn't get a future?" I stopped in the middle of the hallway, crossing my arms over my chest.

The principal shuffled uneasily, and, even though she was much older and taller, it seemed like I was suddenly the adult, "No, that's not what I meant!"

"Then shut your mouth before you say something else you 'don't mean'."

I entered Stan's classroom, trying to sneak to my seat while he was turned around writing on the board. Dimitri, who was standing in his usual spot on the back wall, gave me a look that said he knew my excuse, but I couldn't be late to class either way.

"Tardy, Hathaway!" Stan said.

I swung my body around to see that he hadn't even turned. How in the world? Never mind.

"I have a good excuse this time though."

"I know. Kirova sent out a memo about it. It's stupid."

I sighed, figuring I'd hear the same thing the principal told me, but he continued, "Nevertheless, good for you two for caring for those kids."

The silence that fell over the classroom was heavy. This was the first time my classmates were hearing about the experiment and I was glad I didn't have to be the first one to say anything. But I was also astounded that Stan had actually given me praise.

We stood there for a while, looking at each other before I whispered, "I don't know how to take that."

Stan smiled a little, breaking his guardian mask, "Go sit down, Hathaway."

I hurried to my seat and he continued the lesson.

By the start of second period, Lissa had taken her place by my side, "Hey! You and Dimitri are the talk of the town."

I looked at her, surprised at the efficiency of the student body, "They just found out first period!"

"My class was talking about it by the second half of first. I guess it got out somehow."

I slammed my head on the desk as Jessie came up behind me, "Hey, mama! How's the kids?"

Ralf laughed beside him, throwing in, "We always knew you would be a mom early on!"

I tried to stand up in my seat, but Lissa grabbed onto my shirt and pulled me back down, giving me a silent message: they just weren't worth it.

I sat down in my seat and tried to avoid the stares and whispers coming from around me. It didn't work well.

"I'm going to kill someone," I whispered to Lissa. She didn't reply, "They know I can hear them."

"Calm down," she said, shifting closer to me.

"No, this is ridiculous!"

"Rose, " Lissa said, finally looking at me, "People gossiping about you has never bothered you before. Why is it bothering you now?"

I blanked. Totally and completely blanked. I didn't know why I felt this way, I just did.

Lissa smiled, "Could it be because Dimitri and the kids are involved in this rumor?" Apparently, my face said it all because she continued, "Just answer their questions and pretend that you're happy about the kids, that will get them to stop quicker, and then, for God's sake, keep those kids out of the rumor chain before you kill someone."

We were silent for a while, taking in the new predicament we were both caught up in.

"I'm so sorry you got tied up in this, but I'm so glad you're here to help me with this," I said, smiling gratefully at her.

She started to laugh silently, "Of course I'm going to help you, I'd help you with anything, and, despite what you think, I have a feeling this experiment is going to help you a lot more than it will hurt you."

"Let's hope," I said, trying to focus on the lesson.

"How old are they?"

"Are you really going to do this?"

"You're sleeping with Dimitri Belikov?"

"Do you know anything about being a mom?"

"How long are you going to do this?"

"You, taking care of kids? Do they want to kill those kids?"

"Okay, stop," I said throwing my hands up, "There are four of them, they range from 2 to 13. I am sleeping next to Dimitri, not with him, and we have no idea what we're doing or how long we'll be doing it. We're taking it day by day. Anything else you want to ask I can't really answer because I don't know. Mmmkay?"

They stood there for a second before leaving, some of them bumping into Eddie who was coming to sit with us.

"Do you want to interrogate me too?" I asked him.

"Yeah. You know I'm at your and Dimitri's disposal, right? I'm awesome with kids, just saying."

I smiled at him, "I was just assuming you would be willing to help."

"You assumed right. Are you ready for the senior assignments?"

I looked at Lissa, who smiled at me, "Following around my best friend for a while? Yeah, I'm ready for that."

"I just hope I get someone I can stand."

"You'll get someone good,"Lissa said, trying to calm his nerves.

"Little Dhampir," Adrain said in the hallway, pulling me away.

"Whoa, hey!" I said, following him away.

"When were you going to tell me you had a kid?"

"Well...I actually have four."

He looked down at my stomach in astonishment, "What?"

"Oh my God, you think I'm pregnant?"

His eyes flicked back up to me, "No?"

"That sounds like a question."

"How'd you get four kids?"

So, I told him about the experiment and once I was done he leaned towards me, "That's why that dude has been videotaping us?"

I turned and looked at the cameraman, who waved at me with his free hand, "Yes, Adrain. Yes."

"One more question: Can I still seduce you?"

"You can try," I said, refusing to smile at him.

"Good, I'll see you later Little Dhampir."

Then he left and I was late to my third period class. Again.


	4. Chapter 4

The door burst open and the kids piled into the room, almost as if trying to get in first.

"I won! I won!" Liz called, jumping up in down on the foyer. Mary and Liz's shoes were covered in mud, telling me they had taken the short cut through the woods instead of the sidewalk.

"Take off your shoes before you take another step! Put them outside!" I called from the kitchen.

Christian, who had come with Lissa and Eddie, looked at me in utter astonishment, "That was a quick transition, Mom."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, before seeing Liz prance off of the front mat, her muddy shoes still on, "Absolutely not, Elizabeth! Go back!"

Liz, cringing at her full name, went back and took off her shoes as Mary gave me Charlie.

"How was today?"

"Okay, I guess," she said, shrugging, "Who are they?"

"This is Eddie and Christian. Christian dates Lissa and Eddie is in my class."

"So...Uncle Eddie and Uncle Christian?" Mary asked, looking to me for affirmation.

Eddie beamed and Christian looked like he didn't know how to take this. I fixed Liz's wig, "If you want, but you have to ask them if they want you to."

She looked at them and Eddie, immediately falling under her trance, said, "Of course, Pumpkin."

Liz smiled, taking Eddie's answer as Christian's as well before jumping into Eddie's arm.

Our little experiment family was growing, and I couldn't help but wonder if that was a good thing of a bad thing.

Eddie, Christian, and Lissa hung out with us until curfew, then left me to put the kids to bed. I quickly checked Mary before giving Liz her night time pills, Dimitri's words echoing in my mind, "This is temporary." but as Liz smiled up at me, cuddled in the covers, looking much like Dimitri had a couple nights before, I wanted it to last. I had only had them for three days, and I couldn't remember my life before them.

But then I went to Charlie's room.

"Charlie, " I said, hanging over the side of his crib, "Please, just go to sleep."

I had been at this for thirty minutes, but every time I went away he would start howling and screaming at the top of his lungs. After fifteen, Mary came in and said she would redress Alec so he could go to sleep, and I thanked her immensely for it, but I was beginning to wonder if any of us would get to sleep.

I had to put Charlie down and then do homework for tomorrow and I was already exhausted.

"Charlie, baby, what do I need to do to get you to go to sleep."

When he heard my voice he stopped crying and looked at me, his face still red and snotty.

I took one step away from him and the waterworks started up again, "Okay, okay. I'm sorry."

He extended his hands toward me, one of the only motions the two year old had to communicate what he wanted.

I sat there for a while, debating what I should do before grabbing him and carrying him to the table. I pulled my book bag over, the two year old silently laying in my lap, and read to him out of biology textbook as I did my homework.

After I was done with biology I looked down at the small, sleeping child curled up on my lap and resting his head on my left arm, "You are a troublesome little guy, aren't you?"

But I continued to read to him from my English textbook, barely hearing the front door open and close. I didn't look up and barely even processed the sound, so when I looked up to see Dimitri, leaning against the wall watching me, I was a little surprised.

"You should go to bed," I said, looking at the bags under his eyes. He had probably been standing the whole day.

"So should you," he fired back.

"I have a ton of homework to do, and, naturally, I don't know how to do any of it, so there goes sleep."

"Could I be of any assistance?"

I looked up at him. He was almost swaying, yet he wanted to help me, "Yes, you can. Go get some sleep."

He smile sheepishly at me, before taking Charlie and putting him in his crib. When I heard our bedroom door shut, I was glad he was taking my advice, but I knew I had to do more than tell him to get as much sleep as get could.

But, that was a problem for another time. Right now it was time for the spawn of Satans problems: math equations.

I was half way through it when the bedroom door opened again, and Dimitri came back out.

"When are you coming to bed?" He asked standing in the doorway.

"Apparently after I solve world hunger because this guy needs thirty four gallons of beef for this recipe."

"He's not feeding the world, just you."

I looked up at him, surprised he was cracking a joke at two in the morning, before cracking up. He followed right behind me, and in our delusional state, we continued laughing for five minutes.

"What do you need, Dimitri?" I asked, trying to regain some composure.

"You," he said, and I looked at him. He shuffled before continuing, "It's only been two nights and, already, I can't fall asleep without you beside me."

I looked down at my half finished homework, "I suppose I could just do this tomorrow in Stan's class."

He smiled gratefully, before following me into the bedroom.

The next morning, I woke up with my head on his chest and his arms resting around my waist, well, a little lower than my waist. Slipping out of his arms, I started to wonder how we had gotten into that position, knowing we didn't start out that way.

I looked at the clock and saw that it was a little before he had to get up so I turned on the coffee maker and took a shower.

After I had gotten dressed, I went and sat down at the table, where my math was still. I looked at the half finished problem I was on, picked up my pencil then sat it back down. No, not right now.

Dimitri came down ten minutes later, bringing his wet hair behind his head to secure it, "Senior Assignments come out tomorrow."

"Yep," I said, getting him some coffee before pouring my own cup.

"You nervous?"

"Why would I be? It's just Lissa. I'm just going to do what I'm going to be paid to do in a couple of months. Not a big deal, and if something happens I have Lissa to calm me down."

Dimitri shifted his weight uneasily, "Why would she need to be there to calm you down?"

I looked up at him, thinking back to the nightmares that kept me awake at night before the experiment, "No reason. But you never know."

"Do you feel like you need her there?"

"Well, I kind of need her there to guard her, don't i?"

"Right," he said, before clearing his throat, "I have to go. Will you be alright getting the kids up?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"No doing other homework in class, Hathaway," I heard Stan's voice say and I watched his hand slide my paper off my desk, the last problem so close to being done. I looked up at his disapproving face for a second before slamming my head down on the desk. I WAS SO CLOSE TO BEING DONE!

There was a moment of pure silence, before I felt him place the paper on my head, "Number five is wrong by the way."

It was the second time this week that Stan had done something nice for me, I couldn't believe it.

So after class, when everyone was gone, I stood by his desk, the paper still in my hand.

"Why are you being nice to me?"

He looked up at me, "Because you're adjusting. Rather well, actually, but you are still getting used to having four kids. I can't imagine what that would be like to have those kids thrust upon me and have to deal with rumors about it."

"So why did you say something about them? That was what started the rumors."

"Because the longer you refused to talk about them, the more violent the rumors would get when everyone found out. You know that better than anyone. So I made sure they knew, but you didn't have to tell them. After a couple of days, this will blow over, but today will be this hardest," he looked at Dimitri, who was still on the back wall, "There will be rumors about you two. Bad ones. Ones about your relationship, about the kids, maybe even rumors if you're pregnant or not. Those will pass after the Senior Assignments are given out. You just have to make it past today without killing anyone."

"Not making any promises," I said, leaving the room.

"Hathaway," I turned back to look at him, "No math in Guardian Studies class."

And I smiled at him as I joined the chaos of the halls.

There were rumors all over the place and Christian and I decided to have some fun with it.

"Did you know that Dimitri whispers battle plans in his sleep?" I said, appearing on one side of a girl.

"And the kids," Christian said, popping up on her other side, "The two year old already has a stake."

"Not to mention my thirteen year old," I butted in, "She has more skill than the whole entire junior class combined."

"Yesterday, seven guardians challenged the seven year old to a fight and they lost."

It was the only way we could go through the rumors without pulling our hair out.


	5. Chapter 5

I sat next to Eddie the next day, watching him jump up and down.

"I hope I get someone good."

"You will," I replied.

"Someone that I can actually stand, preferably."

"You can stand anyone, you're friends with me, remember?"

His knee jumped and I quickly put my hand on it, "Quit, you'll be fine."

He looked at me up and down, "You look tired."

"You think?"

"Yeah..." He looked thoughtful for a minute, "I hope I get someone who will let me help you and Dimitri."

I smiled at him. He was about to get one of the biggest assignments in his school career and he was worrying about me. Well, me and my family.

"Don't worry about us. We've got this. We'll be okay. Of course, you're always welcome at the house, but don't stress yourself if you can't."

"Seniors," Alberta interrupted Eddie and I, "Today you will get your Senior Assignments. You will be responsible for their welfare as well as all of the other Guardian tasks. You will see Guardians dressed in all black, you will need to treat these people like Strigoi. There will be attacks during the school day, after school, but not at day. You will follow your charge around and if a 'Strigoi' gets a hold of them, you will be taken down. Is this understood?"

We had all heard the speech before, we knew what to do.

"Very well then, Jack Anderson- James Ivashkov. Benson Amsterdam- Jessica Badica."

I zoned out, thinking back to last night when Liz had woken up with trouble breathing and had to get a breathing machine out of her closet to wear to bed.

"Eddie Castille- Vasilisa Dragomir."

Everyone froze, including Eddie, who had already been going down the stairs. He looked back at me, surprise written on his face as whispers broke out amongst the others. Everyone knew Lissa was mine, but, PLOTTWIST, she was now Eddie's responsibility.

I was in a daze for the rest of the time, shaming myself for just assuming I would be with Lissa, but knowing exactly who made this happen.

"Rosemarie Hathaway- Christian Ozera."

They had to be shitting me now.

As Alberta gave me the folder, she gave me a sympathetic look, but the only indication of my mood that I gave her was when I snapped the Manila binder out of her hand. My guardian mask was on and it would stay that way.

After the assignments were given out, a group of people approached me: Alberta, Dimitri, and Stan.

"When you told me the rumors about my family would go away, you didn't mention that they would still be about me," I said to Stan, before turning to Dimitri, "Did I need Lissa with me during the assignment? God, I should have known, you almost blatantly said it. But, this probably wasn't your original plan, was it?"

I knew from the looks on their faces the answer, "Then my fight isn't with you all."

They followed me out of the gym and as I split off from the rest of the seniors they knew where I was going.

"We were going to put you with Lissa, but we had debated putting you with someone else. After the experiment came out, we gave you Lissa, not wanting to give you more stress, but then we were told that you couldn't have Lissa and we switched you and Eddie so that at least you could have someone that would understand what you were going through and help. Plus, Christian would gain something from it too."

"What in the world are you talking about?"

Alberta pulled on my arm, making me stop, "You know as well as I do that Christian needs a family, and you need to learn how to deal with him because everyone knows that Lissa and Christian will get married, and you will constantly be in a room with him."

"Don't tell me that!"

"Roza," Dimitri said, "She can't help you now. Don't do this."

"You're right, but she can help someone else."

I turned around and started walking, my blood pulsing with all the fury in me, but then I looked up...and there was Mason. I stepped back, right into Dimitri's chest and he looked down over me, "Are you okay?"

Mason disappeared with an anguished look on his face, and I tried to piece myself together, "Fine. Just too pissed to think."

And, I pressed on without a second thought to it. It was just a trick of light anyway.

This was the second time I had busted into Kirova's office in the last week, but she seemed to be waiting for me, "Let's negotiate this, Rose."

"Yes, let's."

"My terms are that you guard anyone besides Vasilisa. I was told to get that and nothing more. Your terms are?"

"That I get to guard Lissa. She's who I am going to be guarding in the future. Not Christian."

"I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because the psychologists running the experiment have told me not to and the experiment is backed by the queen. Would you like to take it up with her?"

The room was quiet for a moment. If I couldn't have Lissa, I needed to think this through.

"Fine, but I need to be in the house with the kids so I can't stay in the dorms with Christian. He can have Alec's room and Alec can sleep in the baby's room."

"Done."

"AND" I continued, "Those kids don't need to see anything like what is going to happen during the assignment. I don't care if I am tested in the most public way you can think. It better not be in front of my kids and not in my house."

"You can not hide behind your kids during this assignment, Rose."

"No, but I can protect them. You all have drilled protection into me since I was a little kid, you can't expect me to go against it now."

"We have drilled into you the protection of MOROI."

"So you're saying that just because those kids aren't Moroi they should have to witness atrocities, real or fake? I've got two molnija marks on the back of my neck that would say otherwise."

Kirova paled as I pulled out my trump card, "Are those all of your conditions?"

"If I think of anymore I'll let you know," I said, leaving.

The three adult dhampirs caught up to me quickly. Damn them and their long legs.

"That was oddly terrifying," Stan said, "Tell me, were you really going to eat her head?"

"Possibly," I said, turning toward the cafeteria, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to find an idiot before lunch ends."

"Stop! I didn't do anything!" Christian said, throwing up his hands in front of his face. Those who hadn't been staring at us were now.

"Will you quit?" I asked, pulling him up from where he was kneeling dramatically on the floor. God, get this boy a stage.

"I'm just playing you," he said.

"Really? I thought you were smart enough to understand that I was about to punch you."

Lissa's arms went around our shoulders, "I'm so glad you all are getting along. Especially since you all will be spending a lot of time together."

"Don't remind me," Christian and I said at the same time.

"You know, you all are a lot like one another, I think you'll get along just fine when you realize that.

"We are nothing a like," we said, again, at the exact same time.

"Yeeeaaaahhhhh, keep telling yourselves that."

I followed Christian through the rest of the day, through making meatloaf during HomeEc (I made him package it up for dinner, and the rest that everyone else had and didn't want), through History (he slept through it, not that I blame him, they were talking about the Era of Good Feelings and all it made me feel was sleep), and then through Fire Magic class (he didn't sleep through that class, I would honestly be scared for his health if he did).

After class, Lissa, Christian, Eddie, and I made our way to my house, where the kids bounded in shortly after we did.

"Take those shoes off now!"

They listened to me this time and shortly after came in.

"Smells good in here," Mary commented. I had put the meatloaf in the oven shortly before they came in.

"Food!" Alec said, trying to clammed onto the kitchen counter.

"You'll get food after you all change clothes. You do realize there's a sidewalk so you all don't have to get dirty walking home, right?"

They all raced up the steps, mud dripping from their jeans. "Alec, stay with me, honey. I'll help you."

He reached for my hand, pulling me up the stairs with him, "Alec, honey. Uncle Christian is going to be staying with us for a while and he's going to need to use your room. We were thinking of putting a bed in Charlie's room and having you sleep there. Would that be okay?"

"How long?"

"Two weeks, tops."

"Why he need my room?"

"Because he needs to be in the house with Mommy."

He seemed thoughtful about it as I changed him into his jeans. He seemed to becoming fascinated with my curls and tugged on one before saying, "If Mommy needs me to, I will do it."

Shocked by this almost grown up declaration, I looked up at him, "Are you sure?"

"Mommy lets me sleep in her bed most nights anyway. The baby crys sometimes, but if Mommy needs me to, I will do it."

"Well...alright then. We can get the bed in Charlie's room by tomorrow, so you'll just have to sleep with Mommy and Daddy one more night."

He smiled a boyish smile and hugged me around the leg, digging his face into my thigh, "I've never been allowed to sleep next to Mommys before."

As he trotted down the stairs to tell Aunt Lissa that he gets to sleep with Mommy and Daddy tonight, he left me with a throat thick with tears.

I stood at his-Christian's- doorway, trying to wrap my head around what just happened. When I turned around, Mary was standing there in new jeans, her dirty ones in hand. She was looking at me with a mix of distrust and confusion before handing me the jeans. Not saying a word, she left to go downstairs and I put the jeans in the washer, which was in another room by the bathroom.

"I don't think Mary likes me," I said to Dimitri when I sent Alec to change into his pajamas that night. Charlie was curled up in my lap as I laid on the bed with the book I have been meaning to read, but never had the chance to. The only good thing about the Senior Assignments was that we had no homework. The only bad thing about that was that, in turn, I didn't have anything to read Charlie to sleep with.

"Why would you say that?"

"I don't know. She gave me a weird look today."

"That's not a very good reason."

"Oh, it's not a reason at all, but it set me on edge."

"Maybe you should spend more time with her."

"Maybe," I said back as I heard Alec come back, "Remind me in the morning to tell you what happened with Alec today. I don't know how to interpret it."

Dimitri nodded at me, and I got up off the bed with Charlie as Alec came in, "Did you brush your teeth?" I asked.

"Yep!" he replied happily, but I hadn't heard water running in the bathroom.

"Let me smell," I said, and he blew in my face.

"You most certainly did not, get in there," I said before going into Mary's room.

"Hey," I said.

Mary got up, already knowing why I was there. I checked her back and reported that it was alright, "You know...if you wanted to bring a couple of friends over Friday for a sleepover, I'd be okay with it."

Mary looked at me suspiciously, "What?"

"Yeah, all they'd have to do is get a form signed by either me or Dimitri saying that we understand that they'd be on our watch that night and they'd be golden."

"You would let me do that?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, you're the only one with access to a TV that you don't have to fight over and your own kitchen that you can get food out of at any time at night. If I were you, I'd use that to my advantage. It's be a good way to get to know new friends."

She still seemed skeptical. "Honestly, Mary, what is it? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing, it's just..."

"It's just what? You can tell me."

"You're...trying."

That one simple sentence, broke my heart.

"Forget a couple, bring the whole class if you want to."


	6. Chapter 6

"You did what?"

"Well, I wasn't really thinking. I just told her she could."

"Roza!"

"What?!"

"You should have told me before you told her she could."

"Why?"

"Because that's how parents work. They need to be united and both in the loop."

I stood there for a second, "Dimitri...I don't think either of us know how two parents are supposed to work together."

We stood there for a long minute as we realized how totally and completely unprepared we were to do this. On second thought, that was probably exactly why the psychologists had tried to stress us out by giving us kids. They knew neither of us knew how to do this. Dimitri had his mother and grand mother, but other than that he had nothing. Sure, things with my mother had been better after Christmas, but the only parents I had ever really had were Alberta and the Academy.

"...Until we figure out how to do this, we'll compromise." I said slowly, "I told Mary she could have friends over to make her comfortable, you can come up with something else and we can do that too."

He shifted from foot to foot, "I'll think about it.

"What happened with Alec yesterday?" he asked after a while.

I looked down at the sleeping kid in the bed beside us, "I don't know. He just got really...grown up. He told me that if I needed him to do something, he would do it."

I explained to him what had happened and Dimitri looked at me.

"He tugged on your hair and then told you he'd do what you told him to."

"Yeah, he did."

We stood there, staring at the tiny bundle on the bed, his head just peaking out of the light blue covers.

"It probably has a tie to some other mother he had. I'll take a look at his file today and see what I can find," I decided, finally.

There was a knock on the door, and we turned to look at a freshly showered Christian, "Am I interrupting something?"

"No, we were just finishing. We've got a while before the kids need to get up, let's go have breakfast."

I sat at the kitchen table with a coffee and Alec's file in my hand, while Dimtri and Christian danced in the kitchen, making breakfast.

I swept through the orphanage page, trying to find some correlation between that and the events that had taken place yesterday. I found nothing, and again coming up with nothing but air when I went through his list of step mothers. It wasn't until I got to his actual parents that the answer stared up at me.

I looked up suddenly, and when Dimitri turned around, he knew, "You found it," he said as I buried my head in my hands.

I could feel him come up beside me and look over my shoulder, "It was his mother. The one who caused the fire."

Alec's mother was a Morio; his father, Dhampir. She had been a fire user and an alcoholic. One night, when she was alone with Alec, she got drunk and decided her life wasn't worth it. She set the house on fire and let it fall on top of her. When Alec's father came home, he got Alec out, who was badly burned, and had gone inside to get the mother when the house had fallen. Neither had lived.

"What's going on?" Christian asked.

"Alec was being weird around me yesterday. We just found out why."

"And? What was it?"

I held up the picture so he could see the woman with the same exact hair that I did.

We explained everything to him as he sat with the picture in his hands. "So what you're telling me is that this woman trained Alec to be loyal to her, then blew up their house, and now you remind him of her so he's loyal to you. That's a little far fetched."

"Got a better idea?"

"Yeah, he LIKES you. Or that he's just a little kid aiming to please an adult."

"He said it like it was trained into him. Don't you think that's a little odd?"

Christian looked up at Dimitri, "And you're with her on this?"

"I trust her, yes."

Christian nodded before looking down at the picture, "Didn't you say you got your hair from your dad?"

The kitchen was quiet for a second, before Dimitri's hand fell to my shoulder, "Thats a dangerous road to travel down, Christian."

It fell on deaf ears, "You have the same hair as this Morio woman, which you got from your dad. Aren't you curious? This could lead you to your dad!"

"I am curious," I said, "but Dimitri is right. That would lead to more hurt than pleasure."

"But..."

"Just forget it, Christian. Now we know why Alec was acting that way, and we can leave it alone."

That ended the matter.

"I have to go to work," Dimitri said,taking the file from me and placing it on the bookshelf where we kept the others, "I'll think about what you said about Mary."

"Good. See you tonight."

Dimitri bid Christian goodbye and left. The minute the door closed, Christian leaned over the table towards me, "What about Mary?"

"It's nothing really. She's just going to have a couple girls over for a sleepover."

"So what's there to think about?"

I looked up at him, "I may have told her she could have a sleepover without consulting him."

Christian glared at me disapprovingly, "You know, I have never seen our friends this unified about a single topic. You, Dimitri, and the kids did that. Don't screw it up."

"It's a sleepover! It's not like I didn't tell him I was pregnant or anything!"

"That can lead to bigger things, and I really don't need to know about your sex life."

We stood there for a second, "It's actually nonexistent."

"What is?"

"My sex life."

"Jesus, Rose! Don't tell me that."

I laughed before going up to wake up the kids. Together, we got them dressed and ready for school before sending them on their way. As we stood by the door, Alec hugged my legs, Liz made me bend down so she could give me a kiss on the cheek and Mary actually smiled at me.

"Make sure you ask everyone if they want to come and get the sheets today. Limit it to six people and no boys. Let's try not to give Dimitri a heart attack."

"Okay," she said, smiling. She seemed amused that Dimitri might have a heart attack if she brought too many people over.

Then they left, and Christian and I walked to the high school slowly. I made sure to watch for pseudo-Strigoi while we walked.

"How long is this supposed to go on?"

Without him naming it, I knew he was talking about the experiment, "Two months."

"Only two months?"

I stopped for a second, "What do you mean 'only'?"

He stopped a little ahead of me before looking at the ground, "Nothing."

It obviously wasn't, but he walked on and I left it alone.

"What are we doing in the library? You don't have homework, Lissa isn't here, and my kids are waiting."

"Chill out, Rose. I just need to check something."

"In the public records section?"

Christian was currently looking through the records of almost every Moroi and Dhampir in history. All of the records the Alchemists gave us were right here in front of us. It was also a very hard place to guard with just one Gaurdian.

"Come on, Christian. What are you even doing?"

Christian pulled a file out of the filing cabinet, "Found it."

I briefly looked at the name: Alexis Nadima. Alec's mother.

"No. Christian. Put it away."

"You have to know."

"No, I don't. Leave it, let's go."

"Damn it, Rose!" He yelled, "Yes, you do!"

"Quiet in the library," the librarian said, but we barely heard her.

I was frozen in place for a minute, and Christian took that time to look at the file, "She had a brother. That was the only relation she had at the time of her death. Ibrahim Mazur."

We stood there quietly for another minute before I whispered, "Can we just go now?"

He nodded before closing the file and put it back. We silently made our way back, Christian looking guilty and my mind racing. When we were about to enter the house, he grabbed my shoulder, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize..."

I turned around and looked at him. I was frozen in shock and screamed. I didn't understand. He was fine a second ago, and now he wasn't. What had I done wrong? I didn't remember anything happen to him, but there he was and he was most definitely not fine.

All my training flew out the window, because it was Christian, and I couldn't understand what I was seeing.

I stumbled backwards, banging into the half opened door.

"Rose?" Mary called from inside the house, coming up to me.

Christian tried to reach for me, his mouth moving, and I screamed. Running sounded through the house and I knew the kids were coming. Christian looked up and his gaze fixed on Mary. His mouth moved, and suddenly all of those training sessions came back.

He would NOT hurt my kids.

I threw myself in front of the kids, and shouting rang out behind me, "Don't touch them!" I yelled at him, and Christian's voice joined theirs, but I was still too scared to listen to him. Hands tried to yank me back and Christian's hands Rose up as if in surrender. As if.

Mary's voice had stopped shouting, before her hands wrapped around my waist, her head digging into my back, "He's not Strigoi! He's okay! Rose, he's fine!"

I started hyperventilating, and she calmly talked into my ear as the other voice stopped, surprised at what she had said.

"Just breathe," she said, her voice breaking, "Just breathe. Everything is okay."

Slowly, my breathing and heartbeat calmed down and the red eyes and pale face melted off of Christian.

"Oh, God." I said, crying, "I'm so sorry."


	7. Chapter 7

When Dimitri entered the room, he looked at me calmly. He didn't seem scared just...worried.

"It was just a one time thing. I promise, I can handle it."

"I know you can. I also know that you're going to have to, but that doesn't mean you can't get help for it."

"I don't have time or money or...anything to get help from a counselor or someone."

"Okay," he said, sitting down next to me, "But you do have the time and the money and everything to get help from me. Talking about it will help, and you've never felt self-conscious about talking to me. Why would this be any different?"

It made sense. I wasn't necessarily happy about it, but I knew I would probably have to do it.

"I had nightmares, before we started the experiment, before I had you next to me."

"Okay, so probably having human contact helps you. That's pretty common. It's also how Mary calmed you down."

I didn't realize what he meant until I remembered her arms around my waist, "Hugs help calm down panic attacks. By wrapping her arms around me, she helped calm me."

"Yeah," Dimitri said quietly.

I buried my head in my hands, "Mary should not have had to do that."

"You shouldn't have to have a panic attack, Rose. Mary's fine, just concerned."

"Dimitri..." But he knew I didn't have anything to say, so we let his name hang in the air.

Then, he grabbed my hand and I looked up in surprise. Thus far, the only time we've touched was when we were sleeping and neither of us had any control over it. No one could blame us for what we did in our sleep, but this was much different. He couldn't explain this if someone asked.

"I've thought of what you said, about compromising."

"Yeah? You've got something?"

"Three things actually. And you can come up with two more besides the sleepovers."

"Okay, I can do that."

"First: I want us all to go to church."

I wasn't thrilled about it, but I knew that spirituality has helped a lot of people and if it would help the kids, I would bare it.

"Second: I want to...them to speak Russian."

"What?"

"We want to feel like a family, a united family. Russian, especially since I'm Russian, would help us build a family dynamic. It would help them...plus, I kind of want to be able to speak my own language."

I hadn't realized how difficult it must have been for him to stay here and speak a language that wasn't his own and be in a country that wasn't his own, "Well, alright. We can start doing that."

He was quiet for a while.

"What was the third thing?"

"Don't freak out on me."

"I've already done that today."

He smiled a little at me, "Considering that you feel better with human contact, and that most parents are at least a little bit fond of each other, I think that maybe we should start..."

"Touching each other?"

"At least hugs or little touches, kisses on the cheek. Stuff like that."

I knew what he was doing. He was giving us a reason to touch, a reason to be able to act on the feelings that we had for each other.

It was quiet for a while before I said, "That's heading into dangerous territory. If anyone catches us touching..."

"It wouldn't be big touching, and it would be just around the kids."

"Dimitri..."

"Think about it. You've devoured psychology books. If a child sees a sign of affection-"

"They themselves will show signs of affection."

"And what happens if parents don't show affection for one another while the child is growing up?"

"The child won't show affection to their spouse."

Dimitri looked at me, he knew he had won.

"Alright, we can do that."

He smiled at me, "One last thing."

"You said that was it!"

"This isn't for the kids. It's for you."

"Oh?"

"Sunday, after church, let Adrian take you out for a date."

"Little Dhampir...and littler dhampirs and Christian. Christian you ruined the trend."

The kids looked at the strange Morio, who was somewhat swaying on the porch, from behind the door. Liz made a sound in the back of her throat, but Adrain paid no mind. He swaggered into the house like he usually did, bringing in the scent of liquor.

Well, this might go even worse than I thought.

"Kids, this is Adrain. Adrain, this is Mary, Liz, Alec, and Charlie."

He nodded at them each before fixing his eyes on Mary, "I heard you were having a sleepover. Already got the keg?"

"Adrain!" I gasped.

Mary looked confused, "What's a keg?"

"Nothing," I said, quickly, but Adrain interrupted me, "Alcohol, honey. Alcohol. Your mother's had a couple of experiences with it herself."

I glared at him over the heads of my kids, and even Charlie looked at me, surprised.

"Adrain..." Maybe this hadn't been a good idea to bring him here, but since Dimitri had to go out, and I couldn't go anywhere without Christian, so I had asked Adrain to come here. He had obliged, but I was starting to wonder if Adrain was good to have around the kids.

But, Adrain had already drawn in the kids. By the end of his visit, Charlie was sitting on his lap, and Mary and Liz were listening adamantly to his many stories. I had decided to give him a try.

For the next few days, Adrain was a constant visitor to the house, and one that was always welcomed with great celebration, but the things he talked to the kids about could border on inappropriate.

By the time Friday rolled around, Mary had brought papers for me to sign and her friends were already over, all of them sitting in the living room. Liz told me Adrain was with them, so I went to say hi to him, and walked in on a scene I never wanted to see.

"Adrain Ivashkov, get that liquor away from my daughter," I yelled, angry at him. Any conversations, and there were a lot of him, ceased, and everyone turned to look at me. Obviously they hadn't expected to see me angry.

Adrain took the flask out of Mary's hands and looked at me, "Come," I said, and he walked obediently towards me, "Girls, dinner will be done in a minute. Uncle Christian's cooking so it won't be burnt."

"Thanks, Rose," Mary said, trying to make things return to normal.

It worked, because a moment later the conversations started back up.

Adrain followed me into the kitchen, and once the door closed I turned towards him, "If I ever figure out you gave my daughter liquor ever again, you will never see me or the kids ever again. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mom," he said, sarcastically, but we both knew that Adrain was my last ditch attempt to hold onto a life outside of this house.

We laid on the floor of Adrain's apartment on a blanket both looking up at the ceiling.

"So, how long is this protective mother thing going to go on?" he asked.

I took a long sip of the beer we had between us, "At this point, I don't even know. They say the experiment is going to go on for two months, but the whole mothering thing..."

"Once you start it's hard to get back out?"

"Kind of, but it's honestly like...I feel like I've been doing this before the kids. I've been taking care of people all my life, been trained to. Now that I have a name for it..."

"I get it. I do, but trying to protect those kids is just going to hurt you. Protecting Mary from liquor? Rose, that's insane! When was the first time you had liquor? What age?"

"...Ten, I think. But Mary has lived her whole life locked in an adoption center. The only bad that she has in her life is the ones that parents and foster parents have made them experience. I don't want to be one of those passive parents that let their kids get into tons of trouble. I want to keep them safe."

He leaned over me, "Rose, you can't. You can't lock them up in that house and keep them innocent. If you do, they will never learn and when they finally get out of there they'll be lost."

I knew he was right, but I didn't say anything. He smiled knowing I was trapped, "Little Dhampir..." he whispered before leaning his lips to mine.

He tasted like liquor and smelled like smoke, but I decided that was okay. He didn't smell like Dimitri or the smell that permeated our house. He didn't smell like diaper ointment or burn lotion or pill bottles.

For a while, my last ditch attempt at having a normal life was working, until my phone ring.

"Ignore it," Adrain said, before pressing his lips back to mine.

"I have four sick kids at home." I said between kisses. "Liz might have stopped breathing or Alec might have ripped open his wounds or Mary broke a bone and didn't notice or Charlie might have forgotten how to chew."

"Ignore it," Adrain said again, and, for a second, I debated it as he slid his hands up my sides, bring my shirt up with them. But the next ring shocked me out of my stupor.

They had called again.

I pushed Adrain off of me, and answered the phone.

Adrain huffed, and I held up a finger to tell him to wait, but he still pressed kisses on my neck.

"Dimitri?"

"You need to come home. We need to talk."

"Honestly, Dimitri, you told me to go have a life, and I am. Now you want me back home."

"Tell him no," Adrain said quietly.

"Don't fell me no," Dimitri said, having heard Adrain. He seemed mad, really mad.

"Mary is drunk," Dimitri said and all was quiet for a while.

"I'll be right there," I said. I hung up the phone and sat up quietly. As calmly as I could I said, without looking at Adrain, "Not being able to protect her from liquor doesn't mean I should encourage her to drink it, Adrain."

"Rose..."

"And it certainly doesn't mean you need to. Those are my kids, not yours."

"They're not yours either! They're not, Rose! They might sign the same last name that you do, but that doesn't mean they're your kids and it doesn't mean you own that last name."

"They are under my care. They are mine until the experiment ends. As is that last name. Honestly, Adrain. You were supposed to make my life easier, not harder."

"What is you life anymore, Rose? Is it me or those kids or Lissa or Dimtri? Which one is the real Rose?"

I glared at him for a second before getting up and leaving, "Whichever one it is it most certainly isn't you!"


	8. Chapter 8

Au Note: I see what everyone's talking about, but we have to see that Rose WANTS A NORMAL LIFE and so does Dimitri (for her to have one, not himself, he's more concerned about her), so of course she didn't bother him about it. It's not a matter of if they love each other. They are doing for each other what they are doing for the kids: trying to give them a normal life. That's why she tries dating him, but, as we saw, she quickly gave up what she calls her 'last ditch effort at a normal life' for the good of her family.

Anyway, back to the chapter.

"Mary..." I said, not knowing what to do.

"You can't do this," Dimitri said firmly.

"Why not?" Mary asked rebelliously.

Dimtri and I both had to remind ourselves that this was a teenager we were speaking to. She may have helped me with my attack and we may have made progress with her through the sleepover and talking with her, but she was still a child. She didn't see why two random people that she was forced to call Mom and Dad were now ordering her around.

"Because it's bad," Dimitri said, reaching for an answer.

"Oh, please. I'm not in elementary school and it wasn't even that bad. Roger said there have been parties that had a lot more drinks there before."

"That doesn't matter," I said.

"You all don't matter," she yelled in a knee jerk motion. She had no control over what came out of her mouth in that moment, but it hurt just the same. Trying to cover up her slip, she said, "And besides, everyone there had at least three and I only had one."

"Geez, where did you all get that many drinks?" I asked, more curious than reprimanding.

"Uncle Adrain sent them as a present."

Of course he did.

"Well, it doesn't matter," I said.

"Why? Why doesn't it matter?"

I was about to answer when Christian, who was coming down the stairs behind her, stopped on the last step and said, "It doesn't matter because if they fall and hurt themselves they will know. If you get tipsy and loose your balance you could break a leg and not know."

Mary looked at him, "Yes but..." She stretched for an answer, "I can't let my disability determine what I do."

"Yes, you should let your better judgement do that."

Mary stood there for a minute, then hurried up the stairs without speaking a word.

"Mary!" I called, but she didn't turn back.

"Oh, fuck." I said, running my hand through my hair, "We fucked up. I fucked up."

"This is not our fault," Dimitri assured me.

"I should have known not to bring Adrain here. To bring him to them. I fucked up."

"You had no idea that he was going to give drinks to Mary and her friends and absolutely no way of knowing if they would take them."

"Oh, I know they would have taken them. I would have taken them if I was them."

I breathed out a sigh before looking at Christian, "This is me getting as close as I ever will to thanking you."

"This is as close as I ever will be to accepting it," he said before going into the kitchen.

Dimitri and I followed him as I said, "She hates us right now, doesn't she?"

"Yes," Christian said simply, "How was your date?"

"Terrible. I shouldn't have tried. Especially with the kids."

Christian stood there, just looking at me then turned toward the stairs, "I'll go talk to her."

Dimitri had a night shift and left right after that, leaving me only with the orders to not go up stairs and snoop on Mary and Christian, which I only did for about a minute when I passed Mary's room.

I was Latin in bed with Charlie laying on my stomach reading to him when Mary came in.

I laid the sleeping baby beside me as she came up and sat next to me. She wrapped an arm around my stomach and put her head on my shoulder, "Are you and Dimitri disappointed in me?"

I thought for a while, "In your actions, yes, but never in you."

"Roger said you all might. He said you would be especially because I wasn't a slut."

"WHAT?!"

"He said that I should follow in your footprints and be a slut. I guess I got so tied up in wanting to please you all that I wanted relief and drank."

"Honey..." I paused. She didn't know what a slut was, I realized. She had lived her whole life in a sheltered orphanage, of course she wouldn't know. "Being a slut...isn't good. Slut is a really, really mean name. I don't ever want you to be that."

"He was...making fun of you?" she asked, clearly confused.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so." She looked down at her hands, "Mary. Don't ever feel like we're disappointed with you. Okay?"

"I'm sorry."

"You're perfectly fine, baby...but you're still going to be grounded."

"We can't keep doing this," Dimitri said.

The numbers were dizzying, but no matter how we spun them they all turned out putting us in debt.

"Maybe if we...No, not that."

"I guess I'll just work more," Dimitri said.

"What? That's crazy! You don't even have time to sleep sometimes! If you pick up another shift you'll run yourself to the ground!"

Dimitri looked at me, at the shadows under my eyes, at my poorly done hair, and said, "We're both already running ourselves to the ground."

We stood there in stunned silence before I said, "We'll figure it out without you taking another shift. Maybe I can convince HomeEc to have a food making month or something and cut down on that. Or maybe...we'll figure it out," but the house was too small, the air too thick and I needed out, "I'm going to go outside for a while."

"But, Christian-"

"Is fine here."

I was supposed to be guarding him, but at this point I didn't care. I needed AIR.

The door slammed behind me and I ran toward the playground on the elementary campus. I didn't really mean to, I just needed a place associated with the time before the experiment and the playground was one of those rare places that hadn't been touched by it.

I sat under the tree watching two little girls go down the slides, going up the stairs and down the slide and up and back down and up and back down and up and back down.

"Rose? Where's your charge?"

"At home," I said quietly, not looking up at who was speaking.

They sat down next to me and laid a pile of papers in between us. I looked at the person and was surprised to find out it was Stan. He handed me a red pen and a key to the paper in front of us, "If anyone asks I gave you permission to be here."

"Okay," I said, starting to grade the sophomores' papers.

We sat in utter silence, the only sound was the joyful shrieks of the girls going up and down and up and down.

"I suppose I should reprimand you for being away from your charge, but I think you've had enough for today."

"Thanks."

"Talking about it helps."

"So I've heard." Another minute of silence.

"Dimitri and I can't afford our lifestyle. Well...really we can't afford the kids. Medical bills almost completely wipe put our income and then rent takes out the rest..." I leaned my head against the tree trunk, "Before this I wanted nothing more than to be an adult. Being an adult when you're still a kid sucks, being a mom is even worse."

"You need money? That's what has you so worried that you left your charge? I could give you money."

"I don't want hand outs, nor will I take them, nor would Dimitri let me take them."

"Okay...well...then earn it. I've got a lot of papers to grade. Come after Christian's done with school with the kids. They can sit in my room and you can grade papers for a hour. I'll give you a twenty for each day. It's not much but it will help get you all through."

I stood there for a moment, thinking through it. That's $100 a week. But it would pull us through.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay."


	9. Chapter 9

The thump on the floor was what woke Dimitri and I up. The loud noise echoed through the quiet home followed by whimpering.

Dimitri and I sprung out of bed and towards the sound to find Liz on the floor of her room.

"Oh, God," I said, enveloping her in my arms. Her face was red, so red she looked like a tomato. Her skinny fingers scratched at her chest and I yelled at Dimitri, "Get her machine."

Dimitri flew toward the closet in her room and pulled out an oxygen machine. We put it on her, but she still couldn't breathe.

"We need to get her to the infirmary," I said, lifting her up. She didn't weigh very much, so it was easy.

"Take her, I'll get the others and meet you there," Dimitri shouted, and without any further encouragement I raced out of the house and towards the hospital wing.

"Please, help her!" I cried, bursting through the doors, "She can't breathe!"

The doctors rushed her off to the small operating room that we had at the Academy and I was left waiting.

I hadn't realized I was crying before I raised my hand to my face, "Oh, God."

These kids had taken over my life, and the thought of losing one almost killed me.

Dimitri entered with Alec on his back and Mary beside him, "Christian's agreed to take care of Charlie tonight as long as we update him when we find out anything."

"Okay," I said. Alec got down from his father's back and ran as fast as he could to me, "Don't cry, Mommy! Whatever you need me to do, I will do!"

My sweet boy, my sweet, baby boy. He didn't even know what had happened but he was going to do everything in his power to make sure I was okay.

I kissed his cheek and he sat down in my lap.

Mary sat down beside me, "Is she going to be okay?"

"I don't know, honey. I don't know."

Mary nodded slowly, accepting that information, before looking at me, "Can I borrow your phone?"

I gave it to her silently and she went into the hall.

Ten minutes later, she came back in and handed it back to me. I didn't ask what she had done, but when the people started trickling in, it was obvious.

"Lissa," I breathed as my best friend hugged me.

"Mary called us," Eddie said from behind her, "Have you heard anything?"

"Nothing for twenty minutes," I said.

Stan, Alberta, Kirova, and most of the senior class showed up within minutes, followed by the off duty guardians, who brought some of the kids' friends from the elementary and middle school.

"Jill," Mary said, getting up and going to the small, brown haired girl I had seen the first day of school and at the sleepover.

"Half the school came out," Dimitri said beside me.

"Yeah..."

The doors to the operating room opened and the doctor came out. It was a new one, one I didn't know, but I went up to him anyway, "How is she?"

"I can only tell parents," he said.

I stopped for a second, "I AM her parent."

Dimitri put his hand on my back, trying to keep me calm, but my baby was in there, and he was refusing to tell me how she was.

"Her legal parent," the doctor said, "The orphanage still has legal rights over her."

I didn't mean to, but suddenly the doctor was pressed up against the wall, my hand around his neck, "My daughter is in there, and you will tell me how she is or I will snap your neck."

"Rose!" Dr. Olendski called, nearing me, "Thank you, doctor, I'll take it from here."

I let the man go and looked at the woman, "Is she okay?"

The whole waiting room held their breath until Dr. Olendski nodded. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as she continued, "Yes, she had fluid in her lungs, that's why the machine didn't work. We drained it, and she should be fine."

"Can we see her?" Dimitri asked.

The doctor looked us over, "Not tonight. Go home. Get some sleep. You all look like you need it."

"No. We'll stay here," I said.

Dimitri tugged on my sleeve, "No, Mama Bear. She's fine and we need sleep." As Kirova began to hustle the students back to their rooms a shout echoed through the room.

"Rose!" Christian yelled, running through the door with a crying Charlie, "He won't stop!"

He threw the baby at me and I said, "What's wrong, baby?"

He stopped and looked at me, my voice calming him down.

"That's it?" Christian threw his hands in the air, "That's all I had to do?!"

"You're such a Mama's boy, Charlie," I told the baby and he laughed at me.

The morning after, I woke up the kids for school and Christian came up beside me, "So, I'm not going to go to school today," he declared.

"Are you sick?" I asked.

"Yeah, I might have to spend all day in the infirmary," he said.

I smiled at him, "I'm not going to let you skip school so I can see Liz."

"I'm not skipping school," he faked coughed into his hand, "I'm taking a sick day...by Liz's hospital bed."

I smiled at him, "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"1-B, 2-A, 3-C, 4-E"

"Rose? Can I borrow you?" Dr. Olendski said from the doorway.

Christian stood up, "Here, I'll grade, you go. Which one were we on, Liz?"

Liz continued to read off answers to Christian as he marked right and wrong. While they were doing that, the doctor and I stepped outside.

"Have you thought of what you are going to do about medical expenses?" Dr Olendski looked at me and I knew someone, probably Lissa or Stan, had filled her in on how tight money was.

"No. Dimitri and I haven't discussed it," I tried to hide my face from the cameraman behind me, giving the doctor a perfect view of my concerned face.

She frowned for a minute, "Well...there are a couple options you could try. Of course, there is going into debt, but you could also set up a Go Fund Me account and get money from the students at school-"

"No. Absolutely not. Dimitri and I will not take hand outs."

"Then you risk going into a huge deficit that you can not pay off with the money you all are currently making." Dr. Olendski took a step closer to me, "You understand that, don't you?"

"Yes, I do, but there has to be some other way than taking money we didn't earn. The job I have with Stan gets me a $140 a week. How long would it take to pay off the debt only using that?"

"10 weeks." I sighed and she continued, "Rose, I know you all depend on that money to eat. You can't do that."

"I know."

The doctor looked around the busy infirmary, "I know you're good at wrapping wounds from training. We get dhampirs in here all the time and we really don't have time to care for them in the way we should with the Morio coming in sick. If you come here in your free time you can pay off the debt."


	10. Chapter 10

AU Note: they can't afford insurance. That's why it doesn't help pay for it.

And, finally, here is your Romitri

"Just look at it."

"No, Christian. Thank you."

"Rose, what if this could lead you somewhere? What if this is your uncle or your grandfather or...he doesn't look like the type of guy your mother would date, he's not your father, but this could lead you to him."

I looked at the picture, "Most definitely not my grandfather, he's too young."

"Fine, uncle then."

Liz gasped from her wheelchair, "You have an Uncle Eddie or an Uncle Christian? Can I meet him?"

"No, darling, I most certainly do not," I said, watching as Eddie pulled her through the grass toward the house.

"Ibrahim Mazur," Lissa read from the file Christian had given to her to hold, "Aged 50, notorious mob boss who deals with...it says extraneous issues."

"He's most likely a hit man," Christian said.

"Cool," Liz shouted.

"Not cool. We protect people, not kill them. Uncle Christian should not be talking that way." I turned towards Christian, "Let it drop, ok...?"

He was there this time. I swear it. Mason looked exactly as he had before death, and he was trying to tell me something, something important, but his voice wouldn't work.

"Rose...?" Christian was, of course, nervous. The last time he had mentioned this man had been right before my panic attack, and now I was staring off into what was probably space.

"Do you see him?" I asked, and everyone turned to look where I was.

"Who?" Lissa asked.

"They can't attack Christian with Liz nearby," Eddie said, looking for a black clothed figure.

"No," Christian said, "Let's go home. No one's there."

And he pulled me toward the house, without looking back.

When we were a little ways away from the rest he said, "You alright?"

"I guess."

"Do you need Dimitri?" he asked. I was caught off guard. I knew Dimitri and I had been careful, only touching each other in front of the kids and Christian, but now Christian was asking me if I needed him for comfort. We were definitely heading into deep waters, and people were noticing.

But I needed him.

"Please," I said, entering the house and gripping the kitchen counter.

"Rose?" Mary asked.

"I'm fine, just go tell everyone I went to lay down. Ask your uncle if he'll take you and the kids out with him."

"Okay," she said.

I called the number that my phone had been stolen to be put in, and he answered right away, "Alto."

"I need no one to attack Christian while he's out. He's distracting the kids while Dimitri and I deal with something."

"I'll come accompany Christian myself. Anything else I can help with?"

"No, just that. Thank you. I...I really appreciate it."

"You forget that Alberta wasn't the only one to watch you grow up. Anything you need, lots of people are here to help."

Tears sprung to my eyes, "Thank you."

"Sure thing, kiddo."

"Rose?" Dimitri asked, and the facade I had made broke.

Before I knew it, we were sitting on the floor of the kitchen, wrapped around each other.

"I'm going crazy," I said through sobs.

"No. No, you're not. Everything's okay."

"Dimitri. I'm seeing my dead ex boyfriend and imagining my friends as monsters."

"That's okay," he said, "We can get through that. You'll be fine."

"Dimitri, I'm scared."

His arms wrapped around me tighter and he murmured Russian into my ear. I only know a little bit, but it was enough to understand the gist of it.

"You shouldn't be saying that." I whispered quietly.

He looked at me, perfectly unguarded, "It needed to be said."

And then we were kissing and holding each other tightly. We tripped towards the bed, clothes disappearing as we went, and Dimitri plopped me onto the bed. I tried to help him with his pants, but he pinned my hands down beside me, "No. You do enough for me already."

My head fell back on the bed and I heard the sound of a belt hit the floor.

We had left deep waters and had started drowning in an ocean, and we couldn't be happier.

I woke up to a smug Lissa looking over me, "So. I see you're better."

In her hands were the clothes Dimitri and I had so carelessly left on the floor, "So, tell me: how was it to finally give in?"

"You knew?" I asked, sitting up with the sheet wrapped around my chest.

"It was pretty obvious, especially when I would come over and Christian would leave blatant hints all over the place. It wasn't that hard to figure out. By the way, Christian unplugged the cameras before we left. We're planning on having you two get dressed and lay down on the couch so they think you all just fell asleep watching TV."

"We...didn't even think of the cameras," I told her, probably looking guilty.

If this got out, it would ruin both of our careers, not to mention give Lissa a bad reputation for having 'indecent guardians'.

"I'm so sorry, Liss."

"Don't worry about it," Lissa said, waving it away.

"No, it isn't. I should have thought of you and not done anything."

She sat down next to me, "Rose...I get it, you want to take care of me, but you have kids now. You're not even my guardian, you're Christian's. You need to think of them before me."

"That has nothing to do with Dimitri and I being together."

"Yes. It does, Rose." She took my hands, speaking earnestly, "Build a home for those kids, build a HAPPY home for them, and you can only do that if you and Dimitri are together and happy too. Be together. Don't worry about me."

"...Okay."

"Good."

"I'm going to need you to take the kids more often."

She laughed, "Okay, I can do that."

"Maybe we should pour Kool-aid on the camera controls," Dimitri said, not opening his eyes.

"'Oh, sorry Experiment Person, the cameras are down'" I said, mimicking how we would tell the experimenters how their high-tech gear became no-tech gear.

Lissa laughed, "Yes. We must do something about those."

"Thank you, Lissa. For helping us."

"If anyone deserves it, it's you two."


	11. Chapter 11

AU Note: Abe came into the story right before Rose had her panic attack. Remember, they were trying to find out why Alec was obsessed with Rose's hair and how it was connected to Alec's mother, the only known relative of the woman was Abe. That's were he comes in.

That is all.

"Rosemarie Hathaway!" the voice yelled from behind me.

I turned around to see a man in a peculiar scarf with brown hair and eyes. His smile was...familiar, but his face was unmistakeable.

"Ibrahim Mazur," I said under my breath.

"Why is he here?" Christian asked me, but I never got the chance to say anything.

"I heard you have something of mine," he said, and I thought of the little boy who had hugged me goodbye today.

His burns were getting better, and Dimitri and I had taken him to the doctor's office earlier that day to get them checked out.

I remembered the look on the doctor's face, "These burns shouldn't have healed this quickly. It's...incredible."

"What's doing it?" Dimitri asked leaning forward.

The doctor looked through Alec's file, "Well...you all."

"Us?"

"Yes."

We must have looked confused because the doctor leaned forward, "Have you ever heard of the Miracle Dogs? Dogs that go to hospitals and love on the kids and suddenly the kids are better? You all are Alec's miracle dogs. You've loved on him and cherished him and his body, now that he is happy, is healing."

We were shocked.

"You all have saved your boy."

"Indeed I do," I said to Mazur.

He stopped near me, only a couple inches away.

"I'm taking him. He will not be given to an eighteen year old girl."

"No, you're not."

"You don't have legal rights over him!"

"You're right! I don't, but I do have the queen on my side."

"You can not care for a child when you are one yourself."

"You're not really one to make that decision."

"I'm trying to do what's best for the both of you!"

"Jesus! The both? Who are you, my father?"

"There's no way."

Christian and I sat at the kitchen table across from Mazur, listening to him tell us a fictitious story about how he met my mother and fell in love with her. Neither of us were buying it.

"Whether you believe or not is up to you, but that is the truth. Now, I will be taking Alec and leaving."

"No," Christian and I both said. We looked at each other, astounded at what just happened before I continued on, "Neither of us have legal rights to the child, but he was put in my charge a month ago BY THE QUEEN, and you have no authority to take him away."

"You are a MINOR! A CHILD! You can not care for him the way he needs!"

"I beg to differ, and, sperm donor or no sperm donor, you do not have any right to waltz into my life and tell me I can't care for the people I love. I have enough people to do that already."

"Rose! I'm home!" Dimitri called in Russian from the door.

"In here!" I shouted back, "We have company!"

"When do we not have company?" Dimitri asked, coming into the room, "Zmey?"

"Belikov." Mazur greeted, "How is your family?"

"The one in Russia or the one here?"

Mary and Jill burst through the door together, giggling as they ran past us toward the stairs without realizing we were five feet from us.

"The one in Russia. The only one you have," Mazur said smiling.

"He wants to take Alec away from us." I told him bluntly.

Mazur turned fully towards Dimitri, "Yes. I will not have my nephew be cared for by a minor."

"But he also says he's my father," I added.

"Well, yes. I am her father."

Dimitri took this all in for a minute before his eyes fell on Mazur. His voice held controlled anger as he said, "You'll have to pry that boy from my cold, dead hands."

"Now, Belikov," Mazur said calmly, "Let's not do anything rash."

"I'm not, but you will leave my home this instant or I will!" His rage was full force now, something I had never seen. Of course, I had made him lose control once or twice, but seeing someone else anger him scared me. I know he would never hit me, but someone else? For the ones he loved he would do anything.

Mazur saw that, and he turned back to me, "I'll leave now. I should call your mother anyway."

"GET OUT NOW!" Dimitri yelled, and I knew part of the reason he was mad was because of what Mazur had told me.

Dimitri wrapped his arms around my waist as I did the dishes, "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Because of Zmey."

"Zmey means serpent if I'm not mistaken."

"You aren't," he said, then fell silent with his head on my shoulder. Finally he whispered, "We need to talk about the kids."

"What about them?" I asked, finishing the dishes and turning towards him.

"I want to adopt."

There was dead silence as I stood looking at him, mouth hanging open.

Mary ran down the stairs toward me, "Hey, Jill and I want to go to the library to study until it closes. Can we?"

"Yeah, come straight back afterwards," I said, not even looking at her.

With the slam of the door, Dimitri and I were alone. Christian had fallen asleep in his room and the other kids soon joined him after that. No one would interrupt us, but a part of me prayed they would.

"Dimitri..." I said slowly. He walked to the fridge and got out a drink before looking at me. I reached for words, "We can't...adopt them."

"Why not?"

"Because they're not ours! We're not even eachother's. We can pretend all we want, but we can't be a family."

He stood there looking at me, "They are ours."

"No, they're not!"

"THEN WHO'S ARE THEY, ROSE?!"

"Dimitri, calm down." I snapped.

"Fine," I said, throwing up my hands, "Let's say they are ours. Let's say that this whole experiment thing never really happened and that those kids are ours. That this 'family' wasn't thrown together to be tested. Let's say that we could adopt them, which we don't have the money to do. How are we going to pay for them? Their medical bills? Their schooling? Their lives?"

"We'd figure it out."

"What about actually getting them, Dimitri? Have you thought of that? No one' ever going going to let an eighteen year old adopt four kids. They're not going to let that happen!"

"We'd handle it. We'd be okay!"

"Would we, Dimitri?" I swiped my face with my hand, realizing only then that I was crying. "Jesus. What about US? Are we going to live together still? Are we going to share a bed? I know you want kids, Dimitri, but do you really want to give up a wife to do so?"

He stood there for a second, "...I didn't think I had to."

"Me?" I asked with a small voice.

He nodded, "When you were ready. When we were ready."

I sighed, "Look, I get it, okay? I GET it. This whole life has been...amazing, but...there are so many things that could go wrong, so many things that could get in our way. After this experiment is done...people will try to rip us apart at every turn. We're living in a fairy tale, Dimitri. Not an easy one, most definitely not, but still a fairy tale. We can't get it outside of these circumstances."

He stayed quiet for a minute and I sighed, "I think...maybe one of us should sleep on the couch tonight."

I couldn't look at him, but I knew he was nodding, "I'll get the bed out and sleep there."

He left right as the back door connected to the kitchen opened.

"I'm sure he didn't mean it," Jill said, coming into the house, "Maybe he didn't know what he was doing, what it meant?"

"No. He knew." Mary said, entering in after her.

"Everything okay, girls?"

"Yes, Mrs. Belikov," Jill said, "I was just leaving."

"Okay, honey. Be safe."

After she left, Mary studied me, "You okay?"

"Yeah, sweetheart, I'm fine."

"You look like you've been crying, Rose."

"I have been, but I'm okay now."

"Uncle Christian said you had a visitor today. A Moroi."

"I did."

"Was he mean to you?"

I thought back to Mazur, the way he had talked about taking my baby like it wasn't a big deal, "Yes. He was."

Mary nodded, sitting down at the kitchen table, "It's like they don't think about the consequences to their action. The way they speak to us...act around us...they could run us over and not feel bad about it."

"It kind of seems like it some of the time, yes."

"It's like they don't realize everything we do for them. We train everyday to give our lives up for them and they treat us like dirt."

I leaned against the counter, "Where's all this coming from, honey?"

"Just...numerous encounters with them."

It was quiet for a second before Mary spoke, looking at her hands, "If a boy touched you in a way that made you...uncomfortable. What would you do?"

I stood there for a second, then thought, "Well, the mom answer would be to tell someone, but if I was really in that situation I would probably turn around and punch them."

"Really?"

I shrugged, "Actions speak louder than words. If I turn around and turn off his lights, it would probably work better than telling a teacher."

"Huh."

I woke drenched in sweat and breathing hard, "Mason!"

The word left my mouth at a high volume before I could stop it, and the next thing I knew Dimitri was coming into the room and I was enveloped in his arms.

"Oh, God," I cried, "Don't ever leave me. You have to sleep next to me. I'm sorry I yelled at you, but please don't leave."

"Shhh, Roza, I'm right here," he started whispering to me in Russian using the English word if he knew I didn't know a word and I fell into a restful sleep that way.

"I love Fridays," Christian said, laying on top of a desk in Stan's classroom. He was throwing a ball up at the ceiling and catching it while I graded work.

Mary was with friends and Dimitri had taken Alec and Liz to the doctor so Charlie was forced to come with me to grade. For the first part of the hour, he had been content with sitting in my lap, but after a while he had reached for 'Grandpa Stan' as the kids called him.

Now, I was watching Stan try to get Charlie to stand by himself, something everyone in the family had been working on, but after a while Charlie's underdeveloped legs grew tired and he would start crying a cry that everyone called 'the Mama cry'. It was named that because only my voice would soothe his tears.

"You know what Liz asked me the other day, Grandpa Stan?" Christian continued.

"What this time? If unicorns were just horses that really liked ice cream cones?"

"I'm sure that question will come someday, but no. She asked me what the word 'adopt' meant."

"You'd think she'd know since she lived in an orphanage."

"Oh, no. Moroi don't want Dhampir children and Dhampirs can't afford to adopt kids, plus, single parents aren't allowed to adopt in Moroi court. So, no. She didn't know. So I asked her where she heard the word and guess what she said."

"Christian, enough," I said from my desk.

"She had heard it because her parents were arguing about it a couple days ago. So, you and Alberta owe me, Lissa, and Doc Olendski twenty dollars."

I stood there stunned for a minute, "You all made a bet for when a Dimitri and I would argue about adopting?"

"No, honey," Stan said, "We started a pool to see when you all would start thinking about it."

"I don't understand," I said.

"Well," Dimitri said, "I happen to know that Dimiti was the one who brought it up, so obviously he's thinking about it, and you tried to stop me from talking about it, so obviously, whether you know about it or not, you've been thinking about it to."

"...oh."

"It's okay to be confused about it, Rose," Stan said, "But it's not okay to forfeit these kids. You and Dimitri can give them a good life, it would be hard yes, but it would be good. The only way you fail this is if you don't try to adopt them."

AU Note: you think this was fun, wait for the next chapter. Now THATS fun.


	12. Chapter 12

"Mrs. Belikov!" the voice called down the busy hallway. Some people beside me snickered at the name and I glared at them.

Jill ran towards me, clearly out of breath, "Mary...She's in...trouble...the boy...bra strap...got punched."

"What?! Jill, calm down, tell me again."

Jill looked at me, "Mary's in Kirova's office. She punched a dude."

Christian and I looked at each other before taking off. We got to Kirova's office in record time, and it happened to be the same time that Dimitri showed up.

"Did you hear?" he asked.

"Yeah," I answered.

"Air!" Christian gasped.

"Rose, Guardian Dimitri," Kirova greeted. A boy, with a towel to his nose, sat in front of the desk beside Mary, an air of intense hatred between them, "Your daughter has hit this boy in retaliation for him snapping her bra strap."

"Mary," Dimitri said, but before he could say anything, I butted in, "Don't worry, we won't be filing sexual harassment."

Kirova frowned, "This isn't about the boy. This is about Mary."

The door opened behind me and Jesse and his parents walk into the room. Three things hit me:1) Mary hit a Moroi. 2) She hit Jessie's brother. 3) My daughter is a total badass.

Dimitri was right behind me, his hand on my back, and it made me stronger. "Look," I said, addressing the room, "If news got out that Mary attacked a Moroi, it would destroy her career. But," I looked at the boy, "That is IF it got out. If it does, we will file for sexual assault,which what he did does fall into that category, that CRIME, and this boy will be thrown in jail." I looked at the family before me, Jesse's face red with anger, "It is in both families interest if this whole ordeal doesn't get out. What Mary did was wrong, but what he did was worse. I don't care if he meant it as a joke or whatever, he does not have the right to touch my daughter, and if what she has told me is any indication, this is not the first time. We will not file assault, you all will deny the whole thing happened, that he hurt himself, not that Mary did."

Everyone was quiet, and I went on, "Of course, they both need to be punished so they will get detention for disturbing the class."

Kirova nodded, accepting everything that I said, and I leaned towards the boy, "But if you ever touch my daughter, I will do worse than punch you. Do you understand?"

"Rose!" Kirova said, scolding me for the threat, "Thank you," she said to the boy and his family, "You may leave."

As they came out, Stan came in.

After they were gone, Kirova turned towards me, "You can not do that. You can not threaten a Moroi."

"Can they threaten me?"

Kirova covered her head for a moment before looking at me, "You know how things work, Rose. You can't threaten a Moroi."

She pointed her pen at me, "If you lay a hand on a Moroi, or even threaten them, I will have no choice but to suspend you."

"Suspend me?"

"And your family will stay here."

"You would do that?"

"I would have no choice, I have to take these things seriously, and, honestly, I think you would hurt that boy if he touched one of your kids, I have to take that seriously. From now on, you are on probation. Don't touch the Moroi."

Dimitri stood behind me as we watched Christian and the kids play a game on the kitchen table.

"Did you see Jesse's face?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, "He did not like that you stood up for her."

We were quiet for a minute. We both knew that angering a Moroi was dangerous, especially one as powerful as Jesse.

"He's going to retaliate," Dimitri said, "To show you that you can't get away with it."

"I know."

He took my face in his hands and looked at me, "Be. Careful."

It happened a week after the bra strap incident. I was walking from the library with Alec beside me when I heard the footsteps behind me, the angry voices of at least five boys reaching my ears, Jesse's among them.

"Ale, baby, I need you to go on home without me, okay?" I told him, not wanting him to see this.

He nodded, "Whatever mommy needs." And he went off, slowly.

I stopped, taking a deep breath and shoving my hands in my pockets. I would not leave a bruise on these boys. I would not leave my family, even if it meant not defending myself.

"Hathaway!" somone shouted, and they started running towards me. I would NOT RUN. Not from them.

Not being very good fighters, their first instinct was to slam into me, bringing me and a few of them to the ground. I tried to get up, but Jesse slammed me back to the ground, "Time to put you in your place, Hathaway, or should I say Belikov?"

He slammed his fist into my face and we both screamed. I closed my eyes praying to God that they wouldn't try anything sexual, and he answered that one, but not any others.

Something slammed into my legs and I felt tendons and bone and muscle break and tear. I screamed in agonizing pain as they continued to snap ribs and make bruises.

"Get off her!" someone yelled, and bodies slammed together. Someone had intercepted them, someone small and trained, well trained because the boys immediately ran.

"Mommy?" the voice asked.

Mary. It was Mary.

"Go get Dimitri."

"I'm getting you to the infirmary first."

She grabbed onto me, and I had to remind myself that she hadn't felt pain before, that her disorder took that ability away, as pain ripped through me, "Mary!" I gasped, trying to hold back the flood of tears.

She supported a large amount of my weight on her and I tried to take the rest of it on my good leg.

It took me awhile to realize that my blood wasn't the only fluid staining the ground. Mary was barefoot and must cut her feet open because she left footprints.

"Mary," I said softly.

Knowing what I was talking about, she shook her head, "I'm fine. I don't feel it."

The infirmary was already in chaos, and in the midst of it was Liz, who ran up to us and tried to support more of my weight in her skinny arms, "I brought Alec like you said, Mary. They say he'll be fine, but he'll need more bandages."

"Alec?" I asked looking through the sheets hanging between beds. On one of them sat Alec, tears streaming down his face, his back split open. Looking at me, he said, "Whatever Mommy needs."

He had seen part of the fight, and he had run all the way home to get Mary, splitting open his wounds.

I fought back tears and tried to reach him as someone grabbed onto me, forcing me, painfully, the other way.

Dr. Olendski pushed me gently onto a bed and I pleaded with her to help Alec, "Go mend him first. I'm fine. I'm okay. Help my baby."

Dimitri's voice pierced through my mind as he called my name, but I was focused on the Doctor, who shook her head, "Rose...Your leg..."

"Go to Alec."

"The bone is sticking out of it."

Dimitri was beside me, smoothing back my hair, and I shook my head, "Alec needs you, Doc," I turned to Dimitri, "He needs you both."

"No, Rose. Vasilisa is with him, he's okay."

I kept babbling on, telling them to leave me, that I was fine, that Alec needed them more. I didn't see the nurse with the needle, but suddenly I was drowsy and sinking into a deep, deep sleep. The last thing I heard was Dimitri's voice telling me it was going to be okay.

"Aunt Lissa?" Mary's voice asked through the haze.

"Yes, honey?"

I tried to push through the fog in my brain, trying to reach them, trying to wake up and hug my baby.

"What does pain feel like?"

There was silence for a moment and I held my breath. Lissa seemed to be thinking of a way to describe the feeling to someone who had never felt it. "You know when someone scrapes their fingernails down a chalkboard and it makes that sound?"

"Yeah, and it's really uncomfortable."

I knew Lissa had nodded, just by knowing her, "You see the pain scale on the wall over there that goes one through ten?"

"Yeah."

"That's like a four. It's uncomfortable. Multiply that time ten and you have the next level, the. Multiply it again by ten, you have the next."

"What level is Mom on?"

"...A ten. That's why they put her into a medical induced coma, otherwise she would be in agony."

"People say you can stop it, they say that you have magic that could heal her."

"...Yeah...I could."

"Why don't you?"

"Your mother...you know that she would do anything for the ones she loves. The magic, every time I use it, I lose part of my sanity. So-"

"Mom would rather be in pain than you have to go through that. Got it."

"If she felt any differently, I would not hesitate to use it on her, that's why I helped heal Alec. She might be mad at first, but it wasn't on her, it was on someone she loved. She can't stay mad for long."

"That's it? Detention?" Christian shouted angrily.

"They're Moroi. And they beat up a Dhampir," Stan's voice, barely containing anger, spat.

"That's ridiculous! Rose is in agony and those boys get off scot free. THEY COULD HAVE KILLED HER!"

"I know," Stan said, "I just wish she would wake up soon. She's already missed her birthday and Dimitri can't get Charlie to calm down."

"He wants his mom. It makes sense." There was a pause before Christian whispered, "The others want her too...I caught Liz crying the other day after her chemo session. It was the first one she had to go through without Rose by her side."

"Did Dimitri figure out who's paying for the kids' medical bills, and Rose's?" Stan asked.

"It was an anonymous donor."

"Well...thank you anonymous donor, especially for being anonymous."

Christian laughed, "If they can't find the person who gave the money, they can't give it back."

"Exactly."

Another pause.

"How's Janine settling in?" Stan asked.

"She's doing okay. She's been a huge help, but...she doesn't really know how to take care of the kids. She mostly cleans. Alberta is the one that helps with the kids."

"Well...I guess it makes sense. Janine gave up Rose pretty early on, so she wouldn't really know how to help."

"And Alberta was the one that actually raised Rose." Christian finished, "Are you really going to do it? The week thing?"

"Yeah. All the teacher's thought it was a good idea and if they didn't I pointed out that Rose would like it. That made the hesitant okay with it."

"And you're going to ask Rose and Dimitri to do it?"

I knew Stan was nodding, "If they agreed with it."

"I heard you got Adrain to help."

"I got him to help with a lot of things, yeah."

So, Stan had asked Adrain to do something? Interesting. Do what? I want to know.

"Good. They need all the help they can get." Help with what? Christian! Tell me what he's helping with.

"Yeah..." Then it got harder to understand them. Then they were gone.

"Rose?" It was Dimitri's voice, calling to me and I wanted desperately to answer, "They took you off the sleep medicine. You should wake up in a few days...I hope you do. I miss you...I love you."

"Owwww," I said, surprised that I could talk. Surprised that I was awake.

"Ah! Rosemary!" a voice said, and I tried to pinpoint it. Looking over, I saw the last man I expected to see.

"Abe?" I asked, too tired to say Mazur.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to kidnap any of your kids. I'm here to see how my money's being used."

"You were the anonymous donor?" I asked, and he looked surprised, "Yes, I am. How'd you know about it? This is the first time you've woken up, right?"

"I heard it. In my sleep."

"Oh."

"Why'd you do it?"

He looked at me like I was crazy, "Because you are my daughter."

"Right," I said sarcastically.

"Yeah, you're mother is here too. Somewhere. She took some shifts guarding when so she wouldn't have to pace around your hospital bed."

He looked at me for a while, "I'm not going to take any of your kids away. At the time, I thought it was for the best to put them back in the orphanage, but now...you need those kids just as much as they need you, and that's saying something because they need you a ton."

I smile and nodded at him.

He kept talking and I stopped listening, finally interrupting him, "Abe, I'm tired."

"Then go to sleep," he said quickly like it was the obvious thing to do. So I did.

"Roza?"

"Comrade?"

He smiled at me, a glorious smile that lit up my world, "How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I guess."

"Do you need anything?"

"Besides you? No. Is my mother really here?"

"Yeah. I called her, after the attack. She kind of freaked out. I think after Spokane..."

"Right," I said, nodding, "That makes sense."

There was quiet for a moment,so many discussions that we needed to have, so many things we needed to say to each other, but Dr. Olendski came into the room, "Rose! I'm glad to see you up."

"I'm glad to be up. When can I leave?"

She laughed at me, "Soon. We just need to get you a wheelchair and get you comfor-"

"I don't want a wheelchair," I said automatically.

"You have to have a wheelchair. Your ribs are still mending, so that takes crutches out of the equation, and you need to stay off that leg as much as possible. Even with your Dhampir healing rates, if you put too much weight on it, it will snap again."

"Wheelchairs draw too much attention. I don't want that. I'll do anything but that."

"you NEED a WHEELCHAIR." Olendski was determined, but so was I.

"No. No wheelchair, on that decision I'm standing firm."

"You can't even stand!" the doctor yelled.

"Maybe there's something else she can do," Dimitri said, butting in, "What if she used a cane?"

"A cane?" the doctor asked.

Dimitri shrugged, "It will keep most of her weight off the leg, not aggravate her ribs, and it doesn't draw as much attention to her."

"Yeah!" I said, "Let's do that!"

Dr Olendski studied me for a second, "Fine, but double the physical therapy."

"Deal!" I said.

"And no picking up anything larger than five pounds. You ribs are cracked something bad."

Dimitri and I sat there for a second, "I-I can't pick up Alec? Or even Charlie?"

"I'm afraid not," the doctor said.

"But-"

"I'm sorry, Rose. That's that."

"What if I use the wheelchair? Can I pick them up then?"

"I wouldn't recommend it," then she left to go get the cane.

"Things are going to be different," I said.

Dimitri nodded, "But sometimes things change for the better."

I hoped that was the case.


	13. Chapter 13

Experiment Ch. 13

"Dimitri…" I was already tired of this.

"What do you need, Roza?"

I smiled at him, raising my arms for him to help me up. He smiled softly, but shook his head, "What do you need? I'll get it for you."

"I want to get a drink by myself," I said.

He walked right past me and into the kitchen, "Water or tea?"

"Soda!"

He raised his eyebrows at me, "The doctor said healthy foods for physical therapy."

"Soda is very nutritious!" I said.

"Water it is."

"You're no fun," I said.

He laughed at me, "You know, sometimes I think you have a switch inside of you."

I stared at him, "What do you mean?"

"I mean," he sat down on the couch next to me and gave me the glass, "Around the kids, you are this capable, strong mother, ready to fix their next problem, then they leave and you are just a regular teenager, ready to goof around."

"Speaking of goofing around…" I smiled mischievously at him.

"No, Roza."

"Oh, come on, Dimitri! I never got my birthday sex." I paused for a second, "Wait. Now we're technically legal…Do you think legal sex is as good as illegal sex?"

"Rose!" Dimitri said and I smiled at him. He shook his head at me, "You need to rest. That means no…strenuous activities."

I frowned at him, but the door opened and I turned around, "Take off your shoes!"

Three voices and a baby shriek filled my ears, "MOM!"

They yelled, excited to see me finally home (so excited they forgot to take off their shoes). They gathered around me, jumping and telling me about their days as I took each of their faces in my hands and smoothed their hair. My babies. My beautiful, strong babies.

"Mom!" Alec said, "Look!"

He lifted up his shirt and showed me his back. It was ridden with scars, but…no bandages. I almost cried.

"That's great, baby."

"Daddy says I have to keep it lotioned so that the skin doesn't crack, but I'm cleared by medical!"

I was speechless, and I looked at Dimitri to see a big grin on his face. He was such a proud father.

"And, Daddy took me to the mall yesterday," Mary said, and I looked at Dimitri again.

"You went to the mall? What dirt did she get on you?"

"She grew out of her old ones," Dimitri defended. Then, he looked guilty, "It was kind of an expensive trip."

I smiled at him. I knew the reason that they had spent more money than they should have was because Mary had asked for something and Dimitri had been unable to say no, "That's okay. With all the medical bills paid off, we should have some money left over."

"Grandpa Abe has been here," Liz said.

"Grandpa Abe?"

Dimitri grimaced, "Abe told the kids that he was your father and they kind of took to calling him that. We also now have Grandma Janine and Grandma Alberta."

"You're kidding me? They must have been thrilled with that."

"Alberta kind of was, but she also said that she wished you had waited a little longer to have kids."

I laughed, "That brat!"

Dimitri nodded, "Everyone has been…really helpful."

"And with the Dhampir Week, it will get even better," Mary interjected.

"What's the Dhampir Week?"

"Grandpa Stan set it up," Mary was jumping up and down as she talked, "It's going to be a week where the Dhampirs get off school and the culinary class is going to cook us lots of meals and we get to stay with you all all day."

Dimitri explained further, "It's supposed to be a week where the Morio thank us for all that we do for them and classes that they go to are all Dhampir ran. The classes are supposed to teach the Moroi Dhampir culture and training and let them sit in our shoes for a while. The Dhampirs get off school so that they can help in classes and chill out, but the seniors still have to protect the Moroi after the classes end." Dimitri leaned closer to me, "Stan said he was doing it so that his grandchildren didn't have to grow up with Dhampir persecution, but the only reason the Headmistress is doing it is because of what happened after the attack."

"What happened after the attack?" I asked.

Dimitri thought for a second, "Mary, why don't you take the others up stairs for a minute?"

The others argued, but I told them I wasn't going anywhere and they finally went to their rooms.

After they were gone, Dimitri took my hand, drawing circles on it as he talked, "After the attack, the five boys just got detention. Many people were…unbearably mad. The living room was filled with get well flowers and balloons by the next day, and the boys…got attacked themselves. Not bad, but as they went down the hallways Dhampirs and Moroi alike were shoving them, tripping them. When people tried to punish the people for bullied everyone claimed they didn't see, even the teachers. When the boys raised their hands in class, the teachers ignored them. It was bad. The attack showed them that even the best Guardians were defenseless against the Moroi and…it scared them."

Dimitri shook his head, "You were a hero to them, not fighting just to keep your kids. You became a champion for Dhampir rights, in and out of the school. Everyone saw how unfair the system was. That you couldn't even threaten a Moroi to protect your daughter without being attacked, but the people who could've killed you got away with it."

He laughed, "Lissa and Christian, of course, ran with it. They angered people, called for a change, gave speeches in the middle of lunch. They were infuriated that this happened to you, and people listened.

"In response to the anger, the Headmistress Okayed Stan's idea for a Dhampir Week to settle things down."

"But…teaching people about our culture, our training, our lives…you can't do that without talking about the persecution that we go through."

"That's what the Headmistress doesn't seem to get. But she is a little bit right, the people will see this as the Academy trying to make a change and settle down."

"Things are going to change, aren't they?"

Dimitri smiled and kissed me softly, "But this time, it's definitely going to be for the better."


	14. Chapter 14

The Experiment Ch. 14

I was sitting in my usual spot, the couch, when the front door opened and a mob of people entered. Thinking it was Mary and her friends, I hadn't thought much of it, that is, until they started lining up in front of me.

"Dimitri!" I yelled, calling him from the kitchen to the sitting room, "We've got visitors!"

"Who is it?" Dimitri called back.

I turned and looked at them, then back towards the doorway, "Um, everyone."

Stan, Mom, Abe, Alberta, the Headmistress, Lissa, Christian, Eddie, Adrain (what, why?), and even some of the teachers that had me as a student were assembled in front of me.

"We'd like to talk to you," Stan said.

I gave him a look, "Is that so? Take off your shoes, I am not cleaning dirt off these floors."

Stan smiled at someone over my head, "Dimitri, please sit."

Not knowing what to do, not used to taking orders in our own home, Dimitri sat and we both looked at the intruders with rapt attention.

Stan, seemingly the leader, cleared his throat, "It has come to our attention that…certain matters should be taken care of."

"What certain matters would that be?" I asked, confused why this took this many people.

"Well. For starters, your relationship with each other needs to be taking care of."

Dimitri and I sat in stunned silence as we looked at Lissa, who shrugged as if to say 'sorry, not sorry'. I thought for a minute, "Let's say that there is any relationship between Dimitri and I that needs to be…taken care of, which we're not saying there is. What do you mean by 'taken care of'?"

"We would need to decide what to do with it. Hide it, expose it, what to do, and that can be further evaluated after we deal with the next issue," Stan said. I didn't think we were being reprimanded, even if our relationship had been illegal until about a week ago, so I let Stan continue, "We need to know if you are planning on adopting the kids."

Everyone held their breath, everyone in the room, as I looked at Dimitri and he looked at me. In that minute, when no words were spoken, we held our biggest argument, said everything that needed to be said, decided everything we would live for, and came to the same conclusion, "Yes," I said, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief and happiness, "We would like to adopt the kids."

Lissa, Eddie, and Christian looked near tears, and, as I looked at the people around us, I saw that Alberta had tears rolling down her cheeks, a huge smile on her face.

She had taken to the kids like she had taken to me, and cared for them when I was in the hospital. No offense to Dimitri and my mother, but Alberta was probably the main reason my kids were alive. She was close to them, and watching them leave would kill her. And me.

I realized with sudden certainty that after I had met the kids, I had never thought of giving the kids away, just what the difficulties would be like if we kept them.

And that made me stop, "But, we can't."

I looked down so I didn't have to see the disappointed looks, the sad expressions plastered on their faces like I had just taken a whip to their heart.

I felt Dimitri's breath on my neck as he whispered, "We can figure out what to do. We can figure out how to do this. We have this far."

"Dimitri…" I shook my head and looked at him, "We're not even paying for their education and we can barely keep ourselves afloat. What happens when we leave and housing and food and medical bills are more expensive?"

"Then, you'll be working and we'll have more income. We'll figure it out."

We stood there and looked at each other. I shook my head, "I want to fight for them—"

"Then, let's do it."

I looked at him, studying his hopeful expression, "You really think we can do it?"

"It'll be rough. Really rough, but we've always found a way."

"And, you won't be alone," Lissa said. I had almost forgotten the people were there, "I mean, think about it," Lissa said, "You'd never have to worry about getting babysitters."

I smiled at her, "Yes, and when they leave, money always appears in my wallet."

She smirked at me, "So really, it's the opposite of a babysitter."

I laughed at her and Stan said, "So, is that a yes?"

I became serious, "If we can find a way that doesn't bankrupt us. We'll do it."

Stan smiled, "Then, you'll have to start saving money. Luckily, you have a lot of resources to help you through."

Abe smiled, "I called in…a favor. I already have a lawyer that you all can use."

"Who?" I asked, wondering who he had threatened.

"A little Alchemist girl owes me for getting someone to slice out a rapist's eye. So, I called her in. She'll be here tomorrow."

"An Alchemist?" I asked.

Abe shrugged, "Alchemists are an important part of Moroi productivity and secrecy. If you have one on your side, just her being there will show that you have their support, which you kind of do, and could help sway the Queen in your favor. You also won't have to worry about paying for a lawyer."

"Okay," I said, looking at Dimitri, "That's as much as you can do for us. No generous gifts, no paying for medical bills, no threatening people."

Christian coughed into his hand, "Too late."

I felt Dimitri sigh behind me. Abe had a bad habit of trying to solve our problems for us through manipulation and threats. It was times like these that I actually believed his crazy 'I'm your father' story.

"Okay, what else do we have to cover in our impromptu meeting?" I asked, ignoring Christian's warning.

Stan shifted, "Rose, are you going to be able to teach the Moroi next week? We kind of just assumed that you would, but…"

"Yes, I will."


	15. Chapter 15

The Experiment Ch. 15

"I don't think you should do this." Dimitri said after most everyone had left, "You can't put weight on that leg."

"I'll teach from a chair, then."

"You all would be teaching together," Stan said. Looking at our confused faces he continued, "Your family will teach together. The official reason is that you all can't be separated with your family and Rose being hurt, but we also want people to see that this, this family with a Dhampir-Dhampir relationship can work, can be beneficial for all involved. That it's not…taboo.

"So, you'll teach together, and your kids will have the run of the place with you. You'll also run some of the training sessions."

"The Moroi are being trained? Like we are?"

Stan smirked, "Yes. It will be…interesting. We thought you might want to see it."

I smiled at Dimitri, but he still shook his head, "This is just a big temptation for you to try to get up and walk around."

Stan looked like he was going to say something, but I beat him to it. I awkwardly hugged Dimitri and peppered kisses all over his face, "Pleaaaaaassssssssssseeeeeeeee. Please, please, please. I just want to see you flip people over your shoulder. I won't move an inch. Please. Please."

Dimitri sighed, "Remember what I said about you having a switch?"

"Yes. That one side of the switch I was a mom and the other I was a teenager."

"Guess which side you're on right now."

I laughed at him, and he smiled, "Fine. But I'm tying you to a chair."

That was just dying for a sassy remark about how he could tie me to other things too, but I decided this wasn't the place.

The next week, I found myself sitting behind Stan's desk, my legs propped up on the smooth wood with Charlie sleeping on my chest as Dimitri explained to the Moroi that we were going to see just how much they knew about how Dhampir's were trained as he handed out the papers.

True to his word, before first period, Dimitri had taken off his belt and tied me to the chair, but I still got around by pushing my cane and good leg on the ground and pushing myself places, which irked Dimitri to no end. I had spent all of that period getting to know the freshmen Moroi that I barely got to talk to. Most of them were very nice, saying that they were sorry that I had gotten attacked: others…not so much. One said that I didn't have any business threatening a Moroi, and Dimitri had pushed me back behind the desk before I could say anything back. I quit talking to them.

Second period was better, Mary had been there and had kept me company, playing cards with me (she cheated, I know she did), and the Moroi had found it amusing to see mother and daughter playing on the ground, especially during a very rowdy round of War (she won, but like I said, she cheated). It didn't take long for the kids to finish up the quiz, so I didn't feel bad about being loud.

The first day was easygoing, the training sessions easy. Dimitri only made the kids run a half a mile and never pressed them to go faster (I swear it was pay back from first period because he would have told me to run, not walk, and it pissed me off that he didn't tell them to.) The classes, on the other hand, were just the test.

The next day Dimitri and I would dive right in and shock them all.

"To be honest, if I looked at these tests and didn't know any better, I would say they didn't go to school with Dhampirs. Even the seniors." I said back at home, "Christian and Lissa seemed like the only people who had any clue what we do."

"That's because Lissa lived with you and Christian lives with us now."

"Dimitri, they didn't even know a standard wage for Guardians. They all thought it was way higher."

Dimitri raised an eyebrow at me, "Well then, they're in for a shock."

I smirked at him, "I suppose they are."

Dimitri stood at the front of the classroom, and the senior Dhampir girls sat just behind him, all uncomfortable with what we were about to do.

"Just throw some guesses out, what do you think the statistic for Dhampir women being sexually harassed is?"

All the Moroi seniors were quiet.

"You must have some guess. Come on. Shout them out." Dimitri's voice was quiet, like always, but it seemed to carry loudly through the room, "Sixty six percent of all women, Moroi, Dhampir, and human alike are sexually harassed. One in three will be harassed in the work place. But if we look at Dhampirs separately? What is it?"

"Seventy eight percent!" someone shouted from the back.

"Lowballing it," Dimitri replied.

"Eighty nine!"

"Higher."

"Ninety three?" someone asked, hesitantly. They all thought it was way lower.

Dimitri finally gave up, "Ninety seven percent of Dhampir women will be either scared, grabbed, assaulted, or raped. They will be called horrible names and looked down on."

The room sat in utter silence. But Dimitri wasn't done.

"Who knows the average age of a Dhampir woman when they are first sexually assaulted? Any guesses?"

"Thirteen."

"Lower."

"Eleven."

"Lower." Dimitri's voice was as dangerous as the information he was giving out to the Moroi.

The door opened and Liz, Charlie, and Mary entered the room and I smiled at them. Liz, in all her…Lizzieness, bounced up to me, landing on my good leg just as Dimitri said, "Seven. As in Liz's age. A seven year old being called a slut, being poked in places they don't want to, being slapped. Extreme cases include rape."

Liz looked up at me, "Mommy, what's rape?"

"Look at these women," Dimitri said, pointing to me and the other Dhampir seniors, "These women have been through this their whole lives. But there is only one instance of when any of them fought against it and it wasn't even for them."

Mary looked up at me and smiled and I thought that maybe, just maybe, me fighting for her and Dimitri telling the seniors these things meant more to her than she let on.

Dimitri circled around us. In any other fashion, it would have seemed predatory, but this action seemed protective, as if it was a hug or a caress. He wouldn't let anything happen to us and I loved him for it.

"These women are trained every day, all day to protect you all, the Moroi. Most likely, one of you will end up with one of them as your Guardians. The have been trained to kill things far more powerful than you, yet, when it comes to protecting themselves from _you,_ they don't. There's something to that, don't you think?"

The bell rung but the class was still enough for Dimitri to calmly say, "Protect those who protect you. Class dismissed."


	16. Chapter 16

"Try it again. You almost have it." I raised my hand above my head where I was strapped to the chair and watched as little Lizzie glared at it with determination. Then, her foot was flying up towards it in an almost perfect kick. She just couldn't reach it like she should have been.

She huffed, "I have to get that high by the end of the semester and I still can't do it."

"You still have a month."

"But we're leaving in two weeks, Mommy." She looked so glum when she said it. Not one of her siblings wanted to leave either, and Dimitri and I hadn't told them of the possibility that they might stay. The truth was, it was too soon to say if we could keep them and we weren't about to build up their hopes just to crush them.

"So obviously you don't have to worry about getting the kick."

Liz stared at me as if I had betrayed her and I laughed, "Okay, one more try before lunch."

When she got it, the whole class clapped.

"Wait, so you do..." Mary trailed off as we looked at the strange language in front of us. "No, wait...maybe."

"This is not your grade level. I'm convinced."

"Well, maybe if we look back here," she flipped to the pages before the exercise to see if it explained it, "No. It's not here either."

I sighed, "From now on math is a Dad thing."

Mary looked at the page for a second before saying, "Sounds good."

"And then Uncle Chris and Uncle Eddie were like, 'No, the scars look cool' and I was like, 'Really?!' And they were like, 'If I had those I would walk around shirtless all the time."

I tucked the blankets around him, asking, "Is that why you tried to take your shirt off in class today?"

"I mean, yeah, Mom."

From the door, Christian laughed and I sighed, "Goodnight, Alec."

Alec smiled at me and buried his head into his pillow, "Goodnight, Mommy."

Once the door was closed, I flicked Christian over the head.

"Ow, Mmoooommmm."

I bounced up and down, Charlie in my arms as he shrieked with joy. I was finally able to stand and hold his weight and no one was happier than him.

I bounced him again and he made a happy sound in the back of his throat.

"Do you think it's like a rollercoaster to him?"

Dimitri looked up from the papers he was grading and smiled, "I suppose so."

"I wonder what he's going to do."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I bet he's a scholar."

"You think?"

I nodded, "Our boy is a genius. Can't you tell?"

Dimitri nodded, "Yes. But I wouldn't care either way. As long as he's our boy."

I smiled widely, "I don't think I would care either."

Family dinners had become a thing at our house. First it had just been Dimitri, the kids, and I, but after a while different people started coming, some with an invitation, some without.

But now it was regularly my family, Lissa, Christian, Eddie, Abe, Mom, Alberta, Adrian, Stan, and Jill.

The dinners were filled with laughs and jokes and tons of stories, and they were sometimes what kept me through the day. I was pretty sure Jill spent more time at my house than at her dorm and we had stopped sending notes. Everyone just kind of assumed she was with us. Lissa and Eddie were consistently doing homework at the house, whether it was their own or one of the kids who needed help (one puppy dog look from Liz and Eddie was back in second grade doing double digit subtraction).

Everyone was family and everyone was happy, especially when we were all together.

And that's how we were when the knock on the door came. Liz had bounded up yelling, "PPPPEEEEOOOPPPLLLEEEE!" And came back with a confused face and a woman I had never seen before.

But Abe had.

"Alright, kids. Uncle Eddie is going to take you all into the kitchen to do the dishes."

The kids, obviously, complained, but Abe just looked at Eddie, "Oh, come now, kids. You can turn on some music really, really loudly."

Once the kids were in the kitchen, the adults went into the living room, the woman following awkwardly behind.

Abe looked at her then at us, then back again, "Ladies and Gents, this is Sydney Sage. And she owes me a favor."


	17. Chapter 17

"It's a tricky question."

"This is a tricky job."

"Yes, well...it's not like I have a choice. I owe your father a favor."

"What did you do, Sydney? You're obviously scared to be here, why do you need to take the job?"

The blonde looked at me for a second, "You're not the only one who has used Abe's services to protect your family."

I sat back and looked at Dimitri, who had been quiet throughout the exchange, "We can respect that."

Sydney stared at us, looking briefly mystified, then back down at her paper, "I think the best thing to do is to get this out there as much as possible. You have a lot of support with the attack and the Dhampir week, what remains of it. I'd stress the family relationship, as well as your...romantic relationship."

She thought about it, "I would mention a couple times that it only happened after Rose turned eighteen."

Dimitri and I looked at each other with guilty expressions and Sydney threw up her hands, "I don't want to know.

"While you all are making your hope for a family known, I will start filling out the paperwork for it. I suspect that any expenses should be taken to Abe?"

"No," Dimitri said, adamantly, "Bring the expenses to me first."

"Dimitri..." I started, knowing that he wouldn't appreciate me saying we couldn't afford the adoption without outside help. Even with me working in the infirmary and us both teaching, we couldn't afford much of what we were trying.

"Even if we need his help, I want to know how much we owe him."

"That will just torture you until you pay it off, and most likely we'll be paying him until we're dead."

"I want to know, Rose." He looked at me with pleading eyes and I had to give in.

"I'll send you the check first," Sydney said, getting up to leave.

That night, I laid on my side looking at Dimitri, who was laying on his back beside me, "I don't think you should get the check first. You're going to be tempted to try to pay it."

"I just want to pay at least a sliver, so that we're not totally in debt to him. Just pay what we can now."

"And if Liz needs more chemo or has a bad attack? If Mary burns herself? If the house needs a sudden repair? What if we need that money?"

"We've always been in need of money. Yet, we've found other ways to pay. We live off of Home Ecs left over food and made as much money as we can with odd jobs and the Dhampir week. We can figure it out."

"We've already figured this out. We have people willing to support us through this."

He flipped himself over, "I don't want to be in debt to anyone."

I scooted closer to him, putting my head on his pillow and draping my arm across his chest, "It's either we're in debt to our family or to the bank. Personally, I would rather be in debt to them."

"I would rather be in debt to the bank. The bank doesn't tell me that I owe them nothing."

I smiled at him, swinging my leg over his body, "Maybe I can persuade you?"

He chuckled, "You can try."


	18. Chapter 18

The Experiment CH. 18

"We have to tell the kids," I told Dimitri later that night.

"I know," he said, pulling me to him and running his hand up and down my bare arm.

"I know they'll be okay, but…"

"What if it doesn't pull through?"

I nodded, "If this adoption fails…what will happen to all of us? Do I go back to school and you go back to work? Do they go back to the adoption center? Will we ever see them again?"

He shook his head, "I don't know, Rose. I don't know."

I let out a shaky breath and tucked myself further into him, "Aren't we supposed to?"

It was family night. Which meant the house was packed. Everyone was gathered in the living room for a movie and I looked at Dimitri and nodded.

He stood up and called for everyone's attention, "So, before the movie. Rose and I have a question for the kids."

Liz beamed at him, Mary looked quizzical, and Alec was already trying to take his shirt off again.

I came to stand beside Dimitri and said, "We know, probably better than anyone, that you all are leaving soon."

Everyone stopped. All of us knew what was going to happen in a few weeks, but, besides a couple of remarks, no one had really mentioned it or said it aloud so plainly.

"Unfortunately, your father and I…we can't really take watching you all leave."

"We were wondering," Dimitri continued, "If you all would like to state."

The kids looked at us for a second, "What do you mean?" Mary asked, her face vulnerable, "Like an adoption?"

"Yes." I said, grinning at her, "Exactly like that."

Alec stopped trying to take off his shirt and looked at us. "Как настоящая семья?"

Tears swam in my eyes, "Yes. Just like a real family."

Liz squealed, Mary cried tears of joy, and even Charlie screamed his excitement.

They ran towards us and before long we were a big, crying, hugging mess on the floor.

"We'll take that as a yes." I said.

Dimitri and I stood in front of our class.

"Today, is the last day of Dhampir week," Dimitri began, and the class seemed to sink in their chairs. They didn't want it to end either. Dimitri smiled a little, and looked at me. I smiled back at him and together we looked back at the four kids sitting in front of the first row.

"Rose and I…we can't begin to thank you all for this week and what it meant to us. I don't think we can ever truly tell you how truly grateful we are to have had this opportunity. That being said, we would like to announce something and to ask for your help."

He looked at me, and I saw that he was unable to continue without crying, so I continued for him, "Three days ago, Dimitri and I filed the adoption papers for our four kids. If the adoption does not go through, they will be taken away from us in about two weeks. To get the adoption signed, we have to go to Court. We have to have a trial to see if we are suitable parents. We would like as many people that we can to go. The Academy is going to have its jet fly everyone there and back. We would just like you to come."

The bell rang but everyone stayed in their seats, "Thank you for your help and encouragement. That's all."

And everyone packed up and left.

AuN: So…I know this isn't;t a lot, and it took a long time. Sorry. Here it is dough. Next chapter: Drama in the courtroom!


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